This and That ...

If you were to drive from Grand Canyon National Park to Zion, here are a few sights en route that you can't take your eyes off..








Those are a few of my favourite pics from the album. We just had one day left in our trip and had to choose between Valley of Fire, GC Skywalk and Zion to fill the day. The decision to visit Zion was made on the last minute, and we're so glad we made it. Since Zion wasn't part of my trip homework, I should say, I literally wow-ed at each and every cliff. Its not always good to plan everything in advance, and one should always leave some room for surprise. GC was in my mind's eye since childhood, so I pretty much knew what to expect. But neither Zion nor Utah entered my google searching history till date. So, it was all surprise-surprise!!!

Not too far from Flagstaff, it takes about 2-2.5 hours to get to Springdale, UT. That's where Zion nat. park is. We did Zion in less than a day, including travel, food, etc. But for my next Utah vacation, I'll make sure I make enough time for each and every park I plan to see. Some of the rocks enroute are so stunning that you really want to pull over and click a pic. All the snaps above were captured from a moving car, else they would have been much better, with some human invasion into the foreground ;)


Look at the intricate artwork, by God, by a river, by whatever. Isn't it amazing? Such fine detailing can only be achieved by man, but to attribute this formation to nature is something I find hard to comprehend. Each time I catch a glimpse of such sculpture during this trip, my first expression would be "Woowww" and the second one would be "How?" My fellow-travellers said its all due to erosion, dinosaurs (more about this later), ice age, blah-blah. I preferred to look at it with wonder without pondering much about what caused all this.


See this one. Doesn't it look as though its the result of brushwork? I mean, somebody with really thick brushes and with a good supply of brown paint brushed a stroke across the rock. If you look at the pic below, you might agree with me.


And the brown paint, spilled over.... I find this a little mysterious though.


We're not there yet.. May be half way between Flagstaff and Zion. But I've already typed a lot. Some where close to the state border is this Glen Canyon Dam. Worth a stopover to get a closer look at the dam.

The Colorado river, chief architect of the Grand Canyon..



The Dam and lake Powell..



Entering Zion..


Now, a visit to Zion complements the GCNP trip. Reason, Grand canyon is seen from the top, so you get a top-down view. But at Zion, you get the bottom-up view. You stand at the base, almost at the river level and look up at the tall cliffs. Stunning! Also, Grand Canyon is seen from a really long distance. Unless you have some binoculars, you can't really appreciate the detailing of each and every rock. At Zion, you stand up-close to the rock and can hence, get a more closeup view. Virgin river, which is a tributary of the river Colorado, is the sculptor of the Zion canyon. Also, the top-most layers of the Grand Canyon were formed at about the same time as the bedrocks of Zion which makes Zion a relatively younger canyon. That might explain why GC is all red and only the bottom-layers of Zion are red, while the top layers mostly browns and yellows and cream. Know nothing about Geology, that's just my guess. Whoa! This paragraph reminds me of a typical answer to a "compare and contrast" question in College exams. :)

Zion national park offers more picturesque rock formations. Red, brown and cream being the primary colors of the rocks. Navigating the park is easy, can be done in 2 hours, if you don't plan to take any trails. The park is closed to private transport. You basically park at the visitor center and catch a shuttle bus to travel across the park. Because there aren't any cars around, you can enjoy the park in utter serenity. lots and lots and lots of rocks. Each bus stop is a great photo op. At some of these places, you kind of get surrounded by really really tall cliffs on all sides. Stunning and scary at the same time. The park is really peaceful, the only noise that you hear is the sound of the rapids of the Virgin river. Another interesting thing to note is that some of the roads inside the park are red sort of blackish-red. As though some of the color from the adjacent cliffs seeped into the mortar. There is lodging inside the park, I guess that'll be a memorable stay.

There are some simple trails, and some hard ones. If you do the harder ones, you'll see the top-down view of Zion canyon. There's this riverside trail which is about 1.5miles roundtrip, simple one. At the end of the trail, you'll go as close to the canyon walls as possible. You are there, two tall cliffs on either side at a hand's reach and the river in the middle. That was how the canyon was formed. We didn't have time for the trail, I so regret :(

Some, quick Zion shots..


This point below is called 'Court of the Patriarchs'. The three cliffs have been given some names too.




River that carved the Zion canyon..


When you plan a visit to Grand Canyon, make sure you have a complete day for Zion. The drive is amazing, and so is Zion. We didn't do full justice to our visit to Zion.

For some unknown/absurd reasons, I never once Googled for "Utah tourist attractions". May be I didn't like the name - Utah. Or something else, but after coming back from the trip, I've been doing a lot of research and I'm really amazed reading how much Utah has got to offer. When in Utah, try to squeeze these into your itinerary, if the pics below interest you:

1. Arches National Park
2. Bryce Canyon
3. Antelope Canyon
4. Dinosaur tracks (UT/AZ have got plenty of them)

Tom Cruise's MI-2 rock climbing scene was actually filmed in Utah. I'm so obsessed with all these rocks that I even started planning our next getaway to this State :)

Tom Cruise from MI-2: The most charming actor in an awesome location - this is what I call a "treat" to the eye. :D

How many of you have been fooled today? Feeling sad that you could be fooled so easily? Don't you worry. There's somebody out there who was fooled consistently by a huuuuge number of people for the last two years. Not by 10, not by 100, but atleast by 8,500 people who fooled it into believing that they have a job, when they actually don't! Who else do you think I'm talking about besides the United States Citizenship & Immigration Services, the USCIS, in short. Here's why...

Each year the USCIS accepts petitions for the much coveted ***H1B*** visa. This is perhaps the World's most sought after visa, as it gives a ticket to making $$$. :) For those IT professionals with Dollar dreams, there's one additional season besides Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter - & that is the "Filing" season. This season begins on the 1st of April every year. And for the last two years, this has been the shortest season of the year. Started on April 1st, and ended on the same day. Huh-oh!

A citizen of India, with a very good job back in Pune, I never dreamt of landing in the US. So, I didn't care about all these work visas. But after coming here, I was like Sheaaa!!! Is this the way the country, the World looks up to, issues work permits? To get a job here, you need a work authorization; and to get the work authorization, you need a job. Do you see the cyclic dependency? Sadly, our friend, the USCIS doesn't.

For the US-graduated students, they have the previlige of getting a short-term work permit that allows them to work for atleast 1year. So, it becomes easier for them to get a job, start working using the Student work authorization, and eventually get the employer file the H1B. But for the people on dependent visas, and for all those in India, there's a slim chance of finding an employer who is willing to file your H1B and is ready to wait till October 1st for you to join work. As a result, most of these people approach the DCCs (Desi Consulting Companies). Most of them are shady guys with a one room office, and with 100's of employees on the payroll. All they do is, take money from the candidate, offer him a "dummy" job and go ahead with the H1 application. Once the candidate gets the visa, and lands up a job, he becomes the hen that lays the golden eggs. The owner of the DCC can happily vacation in Hawaii, while his employees fill up his bank account. In the eyes of the USCIS, he is a legitimate employer. But hey, there was no real job offer while filing the H1 petition. How could the USCIS miss that?

Last year, I went the right way & got a "real" full-time job, and got my H1B filed without paying a penny. But since the USCIS is not smart enough to sift the "real" jobs from the total pool, I missed the lottery. This year, when I gave up (bad market-no one knows whether he'll be in business on Oct 1st) and started enquiring around for a DCC, there's this guy who offered to file my H1. Not too surprising, this is what he said: "I charge 4000$ for processing your app. I strongly recommend you to put atleast 5 other apps (What???). The more tickets you buy, the better the chances of winning the lottery. Right? Any amount you *invest* in H1B is priceless". My greatest regret is that his name somehow slipped off my mind. Had I remembered, I would have posted this in some legal forums.

Because of these DCCs, the applications out number the quota, thereby resulting in a lottery. All the while, I've been believing that your education, personality, experience, anything that is either a natural trait or one thats acquired with lots of hardwork, earns you a career. Funny thing is, in the US, its a lottery that decides whether or not you can work. Hows that??

Atleast 10% of the 85,000 visas are grabbed by the DCCs. If somebody fools you today, you realize it latest by the end of day. But it could take the USCIS anywhere up to an year to realize it was fooled by a DCC. It just rubs it off the shoulder, perhaps denies the visa at the Consullate, and gets ready to invite another set of applications. The System can't be more screwed up. Since its not possible to filter out the DCCs, some radical changes should be introduced in the way the work permits are issued.

That said, I'm asking again: Do you consider yourself the greatest fool? Think again!

I've been to several "must-see" places in the USA, but nothing comes anywhere close to the Grand Canyon. An endless area of colored rock formations, in some really amazing shapes and texture, all carved out by the forces of nature. As you stand at any of the several vista points, its hard to believe that the GC is a work of nature and not another man-made architectural marvel.


GC is mostly sandstone-limestone cliffs carved out by the Colorado river over 100s of millions of years. The oldest part of the canyon is its bedrock which is over 1.5billion years old. Quite surprisingly, the bottommost layer of the canyon is named after a Hindu God "Vishnu", and is called "Vishnu Schist". The erosion has taken place in layers and each layer exhibits a different color. Another noticeable thing is the texture of each rock. Looks as though each rock has been sculpted by man using some really sharp tools.



A closer look..


When I told some of my friends that I was going to visit the GC, the most common comment I got was: "First sight is breathtaking, after that you'll get bored. All rocks and nothing else". But to me, each and every overlook from the designated view points was breath-taking. I sort of went into a trance looking at the canyon. Got a divine feeling, something I only get in proper stone-carved temples of South India, not the cemented ones. Reason being, some of these rocks reminded me of temple gopurams. After a quick read through the park brochure, I realized I'm not the only one to experience some kind of "holiness" looking at the rocks. The canyon ancestors also found them holy and called them shrines/temples by naming them after Hindu, Egyptian and Gods of few other religions. The most notable ones being, "Shiva" temple and one "Brahma" temple.

Here's one:




I can go on writing words of praise about the GC. But in order to make up some space for the traveller's tips, I'm stopping here. Now, the best time to visit the canyon is a small window of time in March/April or in September. Rest of the days, its either blazing hot or biting cold. Make sure you carry lots of water , a cap and some really powerful anti-tan lotion with you. Sunscreens are good, but they won't protect you from getting tanned. Also have a backup camera battery and an extra memory card. GC is a photographer's paradise!

Unless you're hiking the canyon, the nat. park can be covered comfortably in one day. Basically, its this stretch of road with about 10-15 view points on the way. Starts with the desert view watch tower on the east all the way west until the hermit's rest with the visitor center in the middle. This road kind of borders the canyon's south rim. Only half the length of this road is open to private vehicles. A good "September" itinerary would be to do this half first, and then park your vehicle at the visitor center. For navigating the other half, you have these shuttle buses. There's one point called "Hopi Point" which offers the best Sunset views. So if you reach the visitor center by about 3pm, you can take the shuttle bus and visit all other view points and finally get down at the "Hopi" point at about Sunset. Large crowds gather there, so better be there atleast half hour before the scheduled sunset time.

There are a couple of hotels in the GC area, but they get booked pretty early. For the last-minute planners, it becomes an expensive affair to reserve a room in one of these places in Tusayan, AZ. The next best places to put up are Williams and Flagstaff, both located at about 1-1.5hours driving distance of the GC National Park. We stayed at Flagstaff, amd drove to the east entrance of the Park. En route is the Little Colorado canyon which is as pretty as the GCNP. If you travel to the visitor center directly, you would not come across this.





Another place worth a visit, if you have the time is Sedona. If you don't have the time to cover the length and breadth of Sedona, just plan a quick drive from Flagstaff to Slide Rock State Park in Sedona. Its a 20 mile scenic route that you can do in about 30min one way. Until I actually visited Arizona, I used to believe that its just an "Arid"-"zone"-ah! But after taking the drive, I realized that Arizona has it all - desert, lush green forests, and also a snow capped peak!

We drove to Flagstaff from Las Vegas. Took us about 5hours. On the way, if you take a diversion by following a huge board that says "Grand Canyon Skywalk", you would drive to the west rim of the canyon which flaunts a horse-shoe shaped glass bridge into the canyon. South rim is what we visited, and is the most visited rim of the canyon. If you are the adventurous kinds, there are these awesome waterfalls in the Havasupai Indian reservation near the south rim of GC. From what I read, its about a 10mile hike, and the reward you get at the end are sights like these

The first thing that the desis in US do when their parents visit them is to plan a trip to L.A./San Diego/New York/Las Vegas/D.C./blah-blah-blah. But IMO, its the National Parks here that our parents should visit and not those man-made cities and theme parks. Undoubtedly, National Parks are America's best idea. I sometimes wonder why many of the best natural formations in the world fall within the US mainland. Whatever the reason is, the Govt has done a remarkable job by coming up with the idea of National Parks and thereby preserving the best sights of nature for future generations.

From the Grand Canyon, we travelled up to Utah to see the Zion Canyon. More about that in my next post.

P.S:

A movie clip showcasing the GC below..

An Indian movie song from the Film "Jeans". My first view of the canyon was thru this song. It was then that the desire to visit the Canyon entered my "Bucket List" :) This movie was filmed in several locations, across NYC, L.A., Las Vegas, etc etc. But only the canyon caught my eye.

In the video below,
1:55 - 2:45: shot in the GC and "Valley of Fire" state park near Las Vegas. All the while, I thought everything was the Grand Canyon. Damn! Visited LV twice, but never knew there was something more to Vegas, besides the Strip.
3:45 - 4:40: picturized in the Grand Canyon national park.