Left the Grand Canyon this morning. Before crossing the border into Utah, we drove up to Lee’s Ferry which is close to the beginning of the Colorado River flowing out of Glen Canyon Dam. Two groups were getting ready to take a rafting trip down the mighty Colorado. One group was going to be gone 23 days! A calendar was posted showing which groups were going down each day both private and Commercial. It was a 10 year wait for a private group and now they have gone to a lottery system. Each group must be checked out by a ranger before leaving to be sure they have everything they might need. What a wild ride. One of the rapids, Hance Rapid, is a mile long with a 30 foot drop! There are 100 rapids in the course of the trip. After a picnic lunch we drove along the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, beautiful!
We stopped at the Coral RV Park in Kanab, UT for two nights to regroup doing laundry and grocery shopping. We were not expecting to find much to do but were pleasantly surprised. Norm had thought that a lot of movies had been made here and he was right. The Kanab area is second to Hollywood in the number of films and TV series that have been made and is known as Little Hollywood. Most have been westerns. It all started with the Tom Mix film, “Deadwood Coach”, in 1924. The 3 Parry brothers had so much fun helping with the movie crew that they armed themselves with photos of this area and went to Hollywood. They started knocking on doors to encourage studio executives to film here on location. Like the Gouldings in monument Valley, their efforts paid off. They came home and in 1931 purchased a home and turned it into a lodge and restaurant. Over the next five decades Parry Lodge would expand and serve as headquarters of hundreds of films and TV series. The lodge is still a great place to stay. Actors names are over the doors where they have stayed. Norm came back from his haircut with a couple good stories One was when Frank Sinatra was here with the Rat Pack. He brought in “ladies of the night” and partied hardy. There were complaints from this Morman community that saw what was going on. Frank’s answer to the problem was to cut connecting doors between the rooms. It was quickly done and the parties when onward. Time after time many of the towns people were extras playing cowboys, infantry men, and Indians. A 1945 “Saturday Evening Post” article called it “the town that learned how to act.” The receptionist at parry Lodge told us that they have an event each year to celebrate the movie making and many Hollywood stars still show up. All this in tiny Kanab! Kanab has a small film museum with sets from some of the western movies.
We drove a short scenic loop road through Kanab Canyon passing the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. We were amazed at the size of the place. It is acres and acres and still expanding. They are a rescue service that takes in cats and dogs plus farm animals. They even have a large coral for horses. It is amazing. All the animals live out their lives in a beautiful setting if homes aren‘t found for them. A lovely animal cemetery is on the grounds. We heard from the cashier at the grocery store, who used to work from them, that it was started 12 or so years ago by a group of people living in England and is still mostly funded by them. They receive donations from all over the world! Folks in Hollywood put on a big fund raiser each year with lots of movie stars showing up for the event. Why here in little Kanab?
Pink Coral Sand Dunes State Park is just up the road. The sand dunes really are coral colored! 250 or so acres are held in conservation with the remaining dunes open for off road vehicles. We took a short nature hike through the dunes but what really looked like fun was the off road in the little ATV‘s.
With all these places to visit, we barely managed to get laundry and grocery shopping done. Using team work, Norm stayed at the Laundromat while Chris and I went to the market. We came back and the table was covered with clean clothes. I think I’ll hire him in the future. He made a run for a couple bottles of wine and had to go over the border to AZ to this funky place where a “path lady” ran a liqueur store. Who would have thought we would be so busy in Kanab!
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| Getting Ready to Go Down the Colorado River |
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| First Ripples of the Colorado |
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| Hoodoos |
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| Pink Coral Sands State Park |
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| Kanab - Frank Sinatra's Room at Parry's Lodge |
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| Buffalo Wrapped with Film Tape |
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| Little Hollywood Movie Museum |
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| Folks from the Old West |
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| Zion - Christy Heading Inside to Get Away From the Caterpillars! |
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| Catterpillars Covering a Light Post! |
With a short ride to Zion, we were set up for our six night stay by lunch time. It turns out that we arrived in the middle of the major annual caterpillar infestation, the worst ever. They have stripped many of the cottonwood trees clean of all leaves. After they strip the leaves they fall to the ground which is now teaming with millions of tiny creepy crawlies! The kids are the only ones having a ball with them. They are grossing out everyone else! Zoe, you don't want to ever be here the end of April!
The drive into Zion is gorgeous. There is one long curvy tunnel that is too narrow for a wide RV’s without the other lane being closed down. They have a very organized set up to close off the other lane and we were through quickly. We are camped in the valley right on the fast moving Virgin River surrounded by red rock formations and blue blue sky. It makes putting up with the caterpillars worth while. A visit to the Visitor Center got us up to speed and we signed up for a Ranger led bird walk tomorrow morning. We took a shuttle into the tourist town of Springdale. Most of the restaurants, lodges and shops look fairly new. There is even an IMAX theater. Tomorrow we will start exploring the park. We have all been here before but for short stays. It will be nice to take lots of hikes and see all the areas there are to see.
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