Bryce Canyon; Page, Arizona and Lake Powell

On Friday, September 9, 2022, Kelsi and Chase came to town! They were here to visit their friends Chad & Rachel down in Page, Arizona.

Erika & Kyle came down from Logan for the occasion, Jared and Sienna came up from BYU, and Adam came over from Sandy, so we had our whole family at home again!

I sent this picture to our extended family’s Facebook Messenger group with the caption, “Empty nesters, shmemty shmesters!”

That evening we played a clip from Fox and the Hound, and Sienna started crying, right on cue. (This usually gets Erika pretty good, too).

Saturday morning, we had a breakfast with the kids and the Kartchners so that Kelsi and Chase could see them while they were here.

At one point, the kids started playing various instruments: Kelsi on cello, and Erika and Mikayla on viola. Since those weren't the instruments most of them usually played, it was kind of comical.

Then we switched things up and I played cello, Erika (the piano major) played the piano, Kelsi (the violin concertmaster) played violin, and Mikayla (former Dorian) sang. Still not perfect, but, as Kelsi says at the end, "much better."

Here's a little video of before and after the switch:

https://youtu.be/OH3USZBCW5s

The kids also had fun playing a little video game while they were all together.

At that point, everyone headed out, except for Kyle and Erika, who were staying for a few more hours. They bid us an awkward farewell.

Linette and I joined Kelsi and Chase for their adventures as they went to visit their friends Rachel and Chad Call in Page, Arizona. (Rachel and Kelsi were roommates at BYU, and Chad and Rachel lived out in North Carolina for a bit).

We could have lent them our car, but we wanted to spend time with them while they were in the area, so we decided to join them for part of the trip, and then cash in some points for a free hotel room to stay out of their way for other parts.

We had arranged to rent a boat at Lake Powell, so we brought Sharon & Roger's water skis along. I knew they were obnoxiously in the way, so just as we started to pull out, I innocently asked, "Did we get the water skis?" They answered yes before they realized I was teasing.

When we got to Beaver, we went to the new, fancy Creamery for lunch and ice cream.

It was pretty great.

Not long after that, we started getting into the red rock country, which Chase hadn't seen yet.

We stopped for a few hours at Bryce Canyon, which is one of my favorite places in Utah.

I guess Kelsi needed to find something.

The hoodoos and other rock formations at Bryce Canyon are spectacular.

After looking down from above, we went on a hike down through "Wall Street".

The trail switches back and forth down this steep hill.

Bryce Canyon is one of those places where the camera lens never has a wide enough angle, and wouldn't really capture it properly if it did.

It's fascinating how this one tree grew so tall right in the middle of this canyon.

Linette liked this tree.

Kelsi liked to photobomb.

The loop we were on is called "Two Bridges Loop", named after these two natural bridges.

I had a nice chat with a couple from Germany, and they were nice enough to take my picture here. A gal from France talked with us, too. One of the fun things about visiting Bryce Canyon is meeting people from all over the world.

After that hike, we drove up the road to see many of the lookouts, including this one at Natural Bridge.

At the end of the road was an overlook where we lingered until sunset.

The sunset was shrouded in a few clouds, but it was still a pretty view.

As the sun started to set, we headed back to the highway and drove the rest of the way to Page, Arizona in the dark. BYU was playing Baylor, and we listened to the game on the radio as we drove. 

We arrived at Chad & Rachel's house after dark, said hi to them, dropped Kelsi and Chase there, and then headed over to our hotel.

When we got to the hotel, there was not really any wifi in the rooms (nor cell reception--welcome to middle-of-nowhere, Arizona), so we sat in the lobby to listen to the game on our phones. Our kicker missed more than one kick that would have won the game, including in overtime, but fortunately, we still squeaked out the win.

Chakelski and Chachel went on a hike the next morning.

Linette and I had planned to watch our sacrament meeting from our hotel room, but the internet was pretty bad. So we decided to attend a local ward in person. We hadn't planned on that, so I hadn't brought any church clothes at all. So I picked out my nicest T-shirt to go with my jeans and we headed out.

Kelsi told us that the Glen Canyon Dam Overlook was cool, so Linette and I dropped by there on the way to church.

The path to and from the overlook had cool sandstone formations.

The path was often pretty diagonal, so we had to watch our step.

That afternoon, we met up and went kayaking in Lake Powell. Chad and Rachel had a jeep that could pull their trailer.

We brought our inflatable kayak as well as the Kartchners'.

Lake Powell is the lowest it has been since the 1960s. As a result, most of the boat ramps end dozens of feet above the water level, and only one boat ramp is currently in operation on the lake.

So we had to hike down a hill next to the Antelope Point launch ramp in order to get the kayaks in the water.

It was hot out, so the water felt really nice.

The water was a little bit choppy, so it was a little harder to paddle than on a calm lake.

Also, it seemed like we had to struggle to keep up with the young people.

This seemed especially strange, since half the time only one of them was paddling, or they were feeding each other Takis or something.

Eventually we turned up Antelope Creek and the water got more calm in the narrow canyon, away from the big boats and the wind.

Chad got out and did a little cliff jumping.

Chase joined him for the second round.

It was beautiful to be surrounded by these magnificent cliffs--perhaps more so this year when the water is so low that the cliffs are higher.

 

As we reached the end of the creek, the water got very still, producing nice reflections.

Finally we got to the end of the water, where all the gunk accumulates, so that was kind of gross.

We hiked from there up the canyon a bit more. Normally the water would go much further up the canyon.

The weather was beautiful, and we enjoyed the hiking and kayaking.

Finally we returned to our kayaks and carefully got in while trying to avoid the mud and debris on the surface.

On the way back down the main channel, we parked on an "island" for a while and went for a swim.

Early in the trip, Kelsi and Chase were bailing water, until we found that the plug in the back hadn't been stopped up. On the way back, though, their kayak started losing a little air, so it was getting a little floppy.

But they powered through and made it back just fine.

The rocks turned a bit more orange as the sun began to set.

Finally we pulled our boats out and hiked them up the hill to the parking lot.

That was a lot of fun, and the sunset made me happy.

Unfortunately, the battery on our car died the night before when Linette listened to the game on the radio in the parking lot for a while. We thought it would be ok after driving it for a bit, but nope. So we jump-started it and drove to AutoZone, where I bought a new battery and then the nice young man installed it for us for free.

That evening Chad and Rachel had some friends over and we had a big snow cone fest, with dozens of flavors to choose from.

On Monday, Linette went for a jog in the beautiful surroundings.

Then we picked up a boat that we had rented and headed out for a day on Lake Powel ("or what was left of it").

I hadn't driven a boat much, so I spent a little time before the trip going through some boater safety videos, and apparently they worked, because I didn't kill anybody.

The shortcut to the main part of the lake was dry, so we had to take the longer way around.

Here you can see some red barriers up where the boat ramp ends. That's where we parked the day before when we kayaked. Normally the water goes well beyond those red barriers.

We took turns driving the boat, and frequently broke out snacks and beverages, so it was a general party atmosphere.

Here you can see where the water sometimes goes. (Or maybe it's just the color of the rock layers.)

The cliffs almost looked like they were carved with artwork.

Once in a while we would stop the boat and float around for a bit.

At such times, people would often "accidentally" fall overboard.

I decided to swim all the way over to that cliff.

Kelsi did, too.

Floating on my back, looking up at the sheer cliff above me was extremely cool. It was like I was transported to another world. (These pictures gives just a hint of the experience).

While Chase drove the boat, I enjoyed the view and took a bunch of pictures.

We turned up Navajo Canyon, which was more narrow than the main channel.

The sky was blue with a scattering of clouds, which was perfect.

Every turn brought new, beautiful views.

Chad picked out a place for some cliff jumping.

I watched the boat and took videos while everyone else climbed up and jumped in.

Here's a 2 1/2 minute video compilation of everyone jumping for it. We had music going, and I thought it was ironic that one of the songs that was playing was, "Only the Good Die Young."

Mr. Physics

I assume the big question in your mind is, "How far down was it?"

Well, I'm glad you asked! We can actually figure that out from that video. On the first cliff, the timestamp when Linette just steps off of the cliff is 2:16:38 (2 minutes, 16 seconds, and 38 frames of 1/60th of a second each), and she hits the water at 2:17:42, for a difference of 1 second and 4 frames, so

t = 1 + 4/60 = 1.067 seconds = time in the air

The distance is the velocity times time. (If you drive 60 miles per hour for 2 hours, you go 60x2=120 miles).

d = v(average) * t = vertical drop

The velocity changes linearly, starting at 0, and increasing at an acceleration due to gravity of 32.17405 feet (or 9.81 meters) per second squared. So after one second, you'd be going about 32 ft/sec; after two seconds, you'd be going 64 ft/sec; etc. So the final velocity is

v(final) = a * t = final velocity

and the starting velocity is 0. Since the velocity increases at a constant rate, the average velocity all the way down is

v(average) = (v(initial) + v(final)) / 2 = 0 + v(final)/2 = v(final)/2 = a * t / 2 = average velocity

Putting those together, we get

d = v(average) * t = (a * t / 2) * t = a * t * t / 2 = 32.17405 ft/sec^2 * (1.067)^2 / 2

= 18 feet

Linette's foot hurt a little after the first jump, so she didn't do the second one. If I look at that video of the second jump, Chad was in the air from 2:28:15 to 2:29:31 = 1 second, 16 frames = 1.267 seconds. So

d = (32.17405 * (1.267)^2 / 2) feet = 26 feet 

That's pretty far!

We continued back down the canyon towards the dam, enjoying one amazing view after another.

We stopped for lunch in the relatively calm waters of the Antelope Point Marina.

I wanted to water ski, and it seemed cool to do it in front of the dam. Normally you don't see this much of the back of the dam, but the water was really low (170 feet below its highest levels).

I tried getting up a few times, but as the water evaporated, it must have gotten thicker. :)

I eventually got up on the skis for a while. I thought it was pretty cool to ski with this backdrop.

Here's a 50 second video of how that went. The length of the video indicates how long I stayed up.

Chad skied for a good while there as well.

The girls were the judges/cheerleaders, depending on how it went.

Finally, it was time to turn in the boat, so we took everyone over to the beach to drop them off. Linette drove the boat on the way back to the dock.

Along the way, we saw this gal doing wake surfing, which seemed like magic. Here's a 6-second clip of that.

When we got to the gas station on the lake, they said they were closed, even though they were supposed to still be open, so we had to turn the boat in empty and just hope we didn't get hosed too badly when they filled it up for us.

Once we got the boat turned back in, we drove the long way around to get back to the beach where everyone was hanging out. We drove as far as we dared in our SUV, and then Chad picked us up in the jeep to take us down to the others.

Once there, we sat on the beach and enjoyed relaxing for a bit. This duck came up and snuck a chip.

They had a big inflatable turtle that was delightful to float around on.

Plus, I fell in love with sea turtles in Kauai, so this thing really made me happy. (So much so that Chad and Rachel bought me one at the store that night!)

We weren't there long, however, before Chad looked at the radar weather forecast on his phone and said we were about to get nailed by a big thunderstorm.

Here is Linette, blissfully reading her book as a storm of impending doom crawls up behind her.

So we packed everything up and jumped in the jeep.

It was a tight squeeze until they could get us over to our car.

The jeep didn't have its roof installed, so it was easy to get a nice view of the lake.

Good-bye, Lake Powell, it was awesome!

Sure enough, the rain unleashed on us, and Kelsi and Rachel had to try to hold a towel as a makeshift roof as they drove back to their house.

After we unloaded stuff at their house, the rain stopped and the storm moved down the desert a ways, leaving a nice sunset in its wake.

That night we went to eat at the "Dam Bar & Grille." We kept making some pretty good dam jokes about it.

It had a boat inside.

After such a long day, the food tasted really fantastic. I almost made a blunder and got fries, but Rachel said that 'I had to get the "dam chips"', which were indeed excellent.

Afterwards, we went across the street to an ice cream place that was trying to close early until we showed up and ruined everything. 

Kelsi and Chase got some blue ice cream.

After dinner, we all went over to our hotel to go hot tubbing, which was nice.

Tuesday morning, Linette and I picked Kelsi and Chase up at around 6 a.m. so that we could go on a guided tour of Antelope Canyon, with Navajo guides. It was pouring rain, though, so we didn't think a slot canyon would be a wise move. The place wouldn't answer the phone, though, so we had to drive down there to find out in person that it was cancelled (and get a refund).

Since the hike was a bust, we took Kelsi and Chase back to our hotel to join us for breakfast.

They also got warm in our extra bed, in order to be "guests," which helped justify the breakfast.

I worked from Chad & Rachel's house that day while they went out to see the iconic Horseshoe Bend.

Then we all drove to Kanab, Utah, which was on our way home.

We kept seeing cool rock formations along the way, which we had missed in the dark on the way down.

At Kanab, Linette got out and jumped in the jeep with everyone else to join them on a hike, while I found a nice spot at a park to continue working. I had a bunch of code to write, so I didn't really need internet, though I used my phone as a hotspot when needed.

I did have one video meeting, and I thought this was a nice background for it.

While I was doing that, the rest of the crew hiked through "Red Canyon Slot" (aka "Peekaboo Canyon").

On their way out, they got stuck in the sand.

After letting some air out of the tires for more traction, they were finally able to get out.

I saw a little waterfall in Kanab as I was leaving my work spot.

I went to the Thunderbird Restaurant to meet up with the others. I worked a bit more inside as I waited.

The group arrived there a little later, and we all laughed at their sign that says "Home of the Ho-Made Pies". While eating, we read a history of the place, which said that the sign was first crafted during WWII, when lumber was hard to come by, so someone used scrap lumber and only had room to spell "Ho-Made" instead of "Home Made" pies. It sounded folksy, so they went with it. Only in recent years did the wording cause controversy, "so," the write-up said, "we figured why not take the bull by the horns, embrace our heritage and start merchandising!"

After a great lunch and wonderful pieces of pie, we piled back into the car and headed for home, water skis and all.

Chase and Kelsi flew out the next morning and sent us a picture in the white rocking chairs at the airport to show us that they had made it to Charlotte.

Chase hadn't been able to see southern Utah on previous trips, so this was a great introduction to it. 

We really enjoyed spending time with Chad and Rachel and were so glad we could tag along with Kelsi and Chase on this trip.