Saturday, April 12, 2008--Hiking Horseshoe Bend

Saturday morning we dressed for a day of hiking and sightseeing. We expected the temperatures to be warm. We started by driving south of Page, Arizona to Horseshoe Bend. The parking area was pretty full about mid-morning. We began our hike up a hill of soft, red sand.

It was amazing to see flowers growing in the red sand. It was so dry I don't know how the roots were able to hold the plant in place.

There are two types of layered sandstone that have contributed to the red sand. The top of this rock looks like it consists of small red pebbles, while the underlayer looks very dense and flat. The wind and rain erode rocks like these, making the red sand.

This was our view from the top of the hill.

And here is the view we hiked .75 mile to see! The Colorado River cutting a horseshoe shape through the red sandstone cliffs!

The area at the overlook had red rocks all around. Joyce liked getting close to the edge for a better view.

You could see where the river hit harder rock, an island formed in the middle of the flowing river.

We enjoyed the rocky view around the overlook. We wonder how long it will take some of these rocks to erode.
There were even wild flowers growing out of the sandstone!

We enjoyed the view and saw many people at the overlook. In fact, of the 35-40 people we saw on the trail and at the overlook, 80% were foreigners. We didn't realize this area was such a popular destination for Europeans and Asians.
We left the overlook to find more trails. We went to Antelope Point Marina. There were two trails outside the marina, but they belonged to Navajo Nation and there was a fee to walk the trails. We decided to head to Wal-Mart for supplies we might need while at Zion National Park as there are no groceries sold in the park.

When we returned to our camp, we decided to walk to the Waheap Marina--about a mile from our camp. Along the way we passed the fish cleaning station and it was crowded. We talked with a man and his wife who caught 80 striped bass. They were from 2-5 pounds each. As we talked, he filleted 4 fish.

From there we went on to the marina. Many houseboats are moored in the area. We walked around and checked out the different types of boats. We noticed that the majority had slides off the stern.

We walked back to the lodge on the paved trail. As we passed one building, on the grass were two jack rabbits. As we neared, the larger rabbit raised on his back legs and hissed at us! We continued on, he ran ahead, turned and hissed at us again! After we passed him, we kept looking back to make sure he wasn't following us--that was the meanest rabbit we had ever seen.

After dinner, we were lighting a fire in the fire pit when a rental camper pulled in next to us. Bob went over to make sure they knew they were in an area with no hook-ups (during the summer, our loop is a full hookup loop). The couple in the camper was from Germany. We started talking and they ended up bringing their bratwurst to cook on our fire. They are visiting for a month with their last stop in Hawaii.

We said our goodbyes to rest for our trip to Zion National Park.