I decided to explore some of the Kaibab Forest only a hundred or so yards from the rim to look for peckers.
I was super surprised to find this Williamson's Sapsucker tapping away and even more surprised to find out it was a lifer for me. For some odd reason when I was researching potential lifers in eBird this one completely slipped my search. Serendipity!
I watched it for a while but never got the close-up I was hoping for.
Here is the range of the Williamson's Sapsucker per the Cornell site. And now that I look at the eBird distribution it is an expected bird on the south rim. I guess I need to prep better, but its nice to find something I wasn't expecting.
While watching the sapsucker I started to notice some other birds like this Pymgy Nuthatch.
Hairy Woodpeckers out west look different than our eastern ones. They have much less white accents in the wings which makes the white back stripe stand out more.
We headed out shortly before lunch and started our migration around to the east rim, stopping along the many vistas on the way.
The Common Ravens here are much more tame than ours.
I saw a shape out in front of this monument and thought maybe it was a Condor perched. It wasn't.
But we moved on to Navajo Bridge where many reports indicated a good chance of seeing them perched. I was not disappointed!
California Condors!
All of them are wing tagged and I think you can track them online.
We arrived that evening in Page, AZ and had a nice meal and hit the hay. Next morning was our long-awaited chance at seeing the infamous Antelope Canyon. You can't just show up to see these slot canyons, you have to reserve a spot with local Navajo owned tour guides. Its a little pricy but worth every penny and its nice knowing the money is going to the Native American community.
The entrance to Antelope Canyon is fairly unassuming, but once you step inside you see what all the hype is about.
These slot canyons are carved out of sandstone by flash floods and part of the reason why they are regulated is so that some yahoo doesn't get stuck inside during a flood which can be deadly.
The guide also helps you to look up at the right spots to see some of the well known formations. This one was shaped into a heart.
My son George actually took this sands of time photo with his iPhone.
Back outside the canyon this Rock Wren was singing its heart out.
What an amazing place! You can easily see how the local tribes consider it sacred.
We also visited Horsehoe Bend which was nearby in Page.
After lunch we headed to our next destination with a couple small vista stops on the way.
Luke and George
Melissa
Wire Pass is another slot canyon where you don't need a guide and regularly is an example of how people can get stuck and killed. Some people died in here a couple weeks after we went. The weather was really nice when we went and we didn't go too far in. Luke actually was going for a run while the three of us went into the canyon.
In some spots the canyon was really narrow....
But in others it got really big.
It was cool to see some ancient petroglyphs craved into the rock.
We had to get going as we had a 2 plus hours drive to our next stop in St George Utah. It was Christmas Day and although there are some restaurants in the area around Zion where we were staying, I wanted to do something special. Wood Ash Rye is a restaurant that got 5 stars on Trip Advisor so I had booked it for Xmas Dinner.
The sunset on the way over was epic!
For anyone that goes to Zion National Park, do yourself a favor and drive the 45 minutes to Wood Ash Rye, it was quite possibly the best restaurant I have been to in a long time. We had a taster's menu with many different courses and every one of them were excellent. Also big shout out to our awesome waiter Gabe.
By the time we got to our hotel in Zion, it was super late and we fell into a food coma. We all agreed it was the best Xmas in a long time.
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