Kanab likes to sleep in, even on weekdays. I walked and drove around the town looking for a coffe shop and none were open. Even another jogger stopped to ask me if I knew if there was a coffe shop nearby. "This is Utah, they don't like coffee, apparantly!" I replied. Even at 7:30am, no stores were open.
This town didn't impress me at all. It's like it only tolerates outsiders for their tourist dollars, so I tried very hard to spend as little as possible in this town. After another drive-thru breakfast, we headed out to the town park on the north end to hike the steep Squaw Trail to the red rock's rim. It was early enough, and most of the trail was still in the shade. The town quickly opened up with a valley vista as we meandered uphill along the red rocks to get to the rim. From the rim we took an ATV trail a little bit longer, but turned around to avoid the heat. I wanted Sadie out of the sun as much as possible. We were back to the van within two hours.
The plan today was to visit Best Friends Animal Society north of town. I've hear of this place for years and had always wanted to see what kind of animals there were here for adoption. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.
I arrived at the Visitor's center just before 9:30am and was sucked into taking a two-hour tour AFTER watching a 20-minute propaganda video about how Best Friends saves animals from Los Angeles shelters. I didn't want a tour of the entire place, as seeing the rabbits, horses and birds just didn't appeal to me. I was only interested in seeing the dogs and cats. Where were they? Sadie was in the van with the windows open in the shade, and when I mentioned that, I had no other option but to drive with the two tour bus as my own vehicle. Although the driver was polite to me, I felt like this was forced upon me; they wanted to be nice so that I could donate money or sign up as a volunteer. I live in southern Arizona where local shelters could use me more. Why would I want to sign up here in Kanab?
The complex is nicely laid out, but the animals are in buildings that are spread apart a large estate in Angel Canyon. It takes a while to drive to any building. We got to see the cats and dogs as a group that were selected for display, but they were not all the animals at the place. It was obvious that the animals were well tended to, and I especially liked the cat sanctuary. But there was something about that place that was off-putting. When the tour was over and it really had gotten hot by then, instead of staying there longer and buying something to help the organization out, I just left. Perhaps the staff realized I was not going to volunteer or drop a lot of money.
There was nothing else in Kanab that I wanted to see. I was ready to leave and continue on south.
The North Rim to the Grand Canyon is nearby, and I opted to drive the 40 mile road to see the Rim. When would be my next chance? I was tired and perhaps resting in the shade near the rim is what I needed. Once I got to the North Rim, though, I didn't have time to rest. I got out, walked along the overlook, took lots of photos, noticed an overhead flying camera (drone?) that seemed to fly along the rim watching the visitors as it sputtered with its high-pitch noise in the air. I walked through the lodge and decided to hike the 3.4-mile paved Bridle trail with Sadie to the North Kaibab trail head. This is the only trail dogs are allowed on. Naturally, Sadie pulled the entire time.
There were many visitors everywhere, as expected. This is the only access point on the North Rim so visitors are congested here. I rested at the North Kaibab trail head as I saw people of all ages come up from the canyon floor or from the higher Springs landmark four miles below. Many looked exhausted. I let Sadie rest and continued back to our van. Sadie was tired and we drove the 40 miles back to the main road to get on 89A into Arizona.
This portion of the highway touches the far eastern edge of the Grand Canyon. What looks like a high valley is really the lowest edge of the Grand Canyon, but as one descends, one isn't aware that there is a giant crevice in the earth. The sun was now getting low and I didn't have much good sunlight left. The waning sun painted the rocks around us in hues of red and orange. Once I crossed the Colorado River, the sun was now in its last hues.
There was much road construction here, and even the newly-paved stretch felt bumpy and uneven. Traffic at the Page intersection was closed and only one lane per direction was open.
I was tired and hungry when I finally got to Flagstaff at around 9pm. I didn't want to go out to eat or drink, so I stopped at the Safeway on the east side of town, bought two chicken salad sandwiches and raw steak, some beer and parked in a dark area at the KOA across the street and had my late dinner there. My plan for the next day was to get up early and hike up Mount Humphreys, Arizona's tallest peak at 12,633'. It would be my last chance to bag a peak with Sadie on this road trip.
MORE TO COME (especially photos)
No comments:
Post a Comment