"Little Bryce Canyon"

Is the US Forest Service's term for Red Canyon. This amber colored area sits down yonder from that much ballyhooed National Park. 

I wandered around for 11 miles in Red Canyon. I think its wishful thinking to say it's a baby Bryce. However, you won't hear a molecule of complaint from me. I liked it for what it didn't have. And what's that, Jeff?

Bus loads of selfie stick wielding mobs on a "National Lampoon Vacation" journey. 

"There's Bryce Canyon!" 

Snap! Goes the I-Phone on a Stick.

"Everyone back on the bus! We have another three parks to see today before we eat our next buffet!" 

It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye to a selfie-stick.

I think Red Canyon is sort of a local's secret. The trailheads aren't signed from scenic Highway 12. The parking lots are camouflaged behind ponderosa, pinyon and juniper pine trees. You need a Forest Service trail map to figure this all out. Most of the time the Visitor Center seems to be shuttered. This year was the first time I've passed this way to find Old Glory fluttering in the breeze. I scored a map and now it has opened up another play venue for this WWJ. 

Speaking of breezes, I've been seriously windburned in the last few days. There's been Amphetamine-type gusts that even judder Barley the Van to and fro. What really stinks on ice, it's a cold wind. 

This life I lead is very weather dependent. Barley the Van sports about 78 square feet of living area. The Queen sized bed (more wishful thinking) takes up most of this space. In other words. Barley can get very claustrophobic during a bout of marginal weather. 

The Forecast? Marginal weather including the possibility of White Death. That won't do. 

Out comes the maps and the Weather.com app. 

It might be time to lower my altitude, but not my attitude. 

Come on Summer!

Jeff

Try to figure out which photos came from where?

PS. My IPA supply is down to one storage area. I don't think I'll need an emergency air-lift to get me back to the more IPA friendly Colorado. Touch wood.

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2016/03/be-prepared_24.html

April 22nd: A Trifecta of Dates...

Yesterday, it was Earth Day, the first day of Passover and Sid Sambur's birthday. He would have turned 97. May he RIP with Clara. 

So as I strolled around the Hoodoos of Bryce Canyon National Park, I gave thought to two out of three of those days.

I'm not a practicing Jew. Even as a youth while fidgeting in the Young Israel of Ester Gardens Temple I didn't get it. The Rabbis droning their Rabbi-speak, the Congregation murmuring back their reply. The sermons that made no impressions on me and the uncomfortable wool suits I had to don. It wasn't me. 

That being said, I'm very Jewish in a cultural manner. I'm proud to be a member of a this very determined and hardheaded Tribe.

What do you get when you put ten Jews in a room? Eleven opinions! We challenge, we question and we can be a real pain in the tuchas. We are lovers of animated conservations, and the characters who express them. We can be passionate in our beliefs.

We are the underdogs who somehow managed to survive a Pharaoh,  the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Pogroms and worst of all-the Holocaust. It was the last episode that brought Sid and Clara together on a blind date in the safety of the Bronx. The US granted them entry and escape from Hitler's Final Solution. For this, I will be forever thankful for. 

So Happy Passover to Jews and non-Jews alike. It's a celebration of Freedom and who doesn't love being free? 

Back to Bryce: While being exfoliated by the wind, I also thought about my father. I often wonder what Sid would think about my present living situation. 

He probably would have used his classic query to no one in particular. "How can a man have three sons and each one be so different?" 

I'm sure he would think I'm strange, meshuggah (crazy) but figure I'm not bothering anyone. I'm staying out of trouble, and I'm paying my bills and taxes. In other words, he'd be OK with it. 

Jews love our Freedoms in whatever form it comes in, including being homeless by choice.

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2016/03/three-years-of-homelessness.html

In the last photo, that's really a matzoh PB&J. I spilled my Nalgene bottle of water on the cardboard carbohydrate and it swelled up to look just like bread! Like I said, I'm not a practicing Jew. 

Happy Passover to all and Happy Birthday to you Sid. 

L'chiam (To Life!)

Jeff 

There's more on Bryce from last year's post.

http://jeffsambur.blogspot.com/2015/04/the-land-of-giddy.html

Zion Finale...

It seemed fitting to finish off the Zion portion of this roll with a two night camp out at La Verkin Creek. This waterway lies in a separate unit of Zion NP named Kolob Canyons. It's about as cast off from the main part of Zion as a crushed beer can along a busy highway. It's stand alone beauty could make it a separate National Park on its own merits.

I chose campsite #12 to be my temporary home. My nearest neighbor was over a half a mile away. That's about right for backpacking. 

The Season of Death (Winter) was beginning to yield to Spring. Brush oaks, Box Elders and Cottonwoods were leafing out. In the meadows, lush grass was tall enough for a horse or cow  to notice. Flowers were blooming everywhere. I could almost hear the exponential green growth, and I'm sort of deaf. 

Campsite #12 lies in a thin part of La Verkin Canyon. I lost the sun early in the evening and gained it back late in the morning. In those hours, the sandstone radiated a warm red glow. It felt cozy. The creek made gurgling sounds 24/7. The down canyon winds  shook my tent and woke me from my dreams. I went back to sleep in a New York nano-second. It was all wonderful.

I hiked, I looked around and I read. I managed to consume 300 pages of "Theodore Rex" into my BUSY schedule. The book is over 700 pages. I'm glad I brought it along. Teddy Roosevelt would have said "Bully!" (TR's word) to know I shlepped a two pound book in and out for eight miles. 

Today, I'm off to Bryce NP. I'm about to enter a "Food Desert" where fresh fruits and veggies are about as rare as Wandering, Wondering Jews are in Utah. As always I'm prepared. I provisioned up in Cedar City, Utah. Barley the Van is stocked full of a colorful harvest. Scurvy shouldn't be an issue. My IPA and coffee supply are holding up too.

This trip has been a lot of fun so far. I hope it continues.

Cheers,

Jeff