Day 218: GSENM, PSNM, and GCPNM

This morning we packed up and said goodbye to Lake Powell and Lone Rock:

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We stopped in at one of the visitor centers in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the kids received their Junior Ranger badges:

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We continued West to Pipe Spring National Monument, which preserves the Native American and Mormon histories of North-Central Arizona:

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The kids received their Junior Ranger badges here as well.  They also worked through the workbooks for

Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument here, since there is no separate visitor center for GCPNM, and received their badges for that as well.

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We arrived in Las Vegas towards evening and will be here for Purim.  See the trip map for details.

Day 217: Kayaking Lake Powell

This morning we walked our kayaks down to the shore of Lake Powell and paddled out towards Lone Rock:

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We had found a lost decoy duck when we went kayaking on the Salt River.  B named the duck and tethered it to her kayak.  The natives came over to meet their synthetic friend:

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We rounded Lone Rock:

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In the distance, we spotted a slot canyon:

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We pulled our kayaks up on shore and hiked up the canyon:

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The last 20 feet of the canyon was very narrow.  Here’s the view straight up:

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We hiked back to the kayaks and continued our trip:

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The herons were out:

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Some channels among the rocks were narrow:

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In the afternoon, we played on the beach:

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…And had a campfire dinner at towards sunset:

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Tomorrow we will head back to Las Vegas.  We’ve enjoyed our stay here, I’m sure we will be back soon!