Download 2014 Brochure (.pdf) - Ornitholidays

U S A – U TA H & A R I Z O N A
USA – Utah & Arizona
Scenic Splendour
Thursday 15 May – Friday 30 May 2014
Principal Leader: Richard Coomber
2014 Cost £4,199 single room supplement £490
T
his will be Ornitholidays’ seventh tour to the magnificent national parks of southern Utah and north-eastern
Arizona. This holiday will appeal to those who have joined any of our birding and photographic tours for on this
trip the scenery is superlative. Starting at the Great Salt Lake, where we should encounter a large number of wetland
species, we head south towards the canyons and Indian country of the Colorado Plateau. Zion National Park is the
first of five national parks and monuments included in this tour, not to mention several state parks as well. We stay at
colourful Bryce Canyon with its thousands of pillars and pinnacles, after which we head into Arizona to the North Rim
of the Grand Canyon. The North Rim is about 300 metres higher than the southern side, offering a different
perspective of that awesome abyss through which the Colorado River flows far below. Next on our route is the
spectacular Monument Valley, featured in many John Wayne movies, and we shall visit the nearby Navajo National
Monument to view the ruined cliff dwellings of Betatakin. Returning to Utah we stay at Moab, from where we visit the
dramatic Arches National Park before returning to Salt Lake City for our homeward flight. If you like to combine your
birding with epic landscapes, a fascinating flora and ecology as well as plenty of unique photographic opportunities,
then this is the tour for you!
Zion
National
Park
Salt Lake City
UTAH
Bryce Canyon
Grand Canyon
ARIZONA
Moab
Kayenta
ITINERARY
Days 1 & 2
We catch a flight from London to Salt Lake City
and we arrive in the evening. We transfer to our
hotel near the airport where we stay for two
nights. In the morning we explore the Great Salt
Lake area starting with a look along the
causeway to Antelope Island, where we hope to
find some of the migrating species that pause
here on their way to their Arctic breeding
grounds. These might include peeps,
Sanderlings and phalaropes, along with the local
Black-necked Grebes, and their numbers could
be in the thousands in a good year. Amongst the
sage-covered hillsides of Antelope Island we will
look for Horned Lark, Sage Thrasher and the
introduced Chukar. Later we explore the Bear
River Refuge where, depending on prevailing
water levels, a variety of shorebirds and wildfowl
as well as other wetland and grassland species
are to be found. Species to be looked for during
the day include Western and Clark’s Grebes,
American White Pelican, White-faced Ibis,
Cinnamon Teal, Virginia Rail, Sora, Sandhill
Crane, American Avocet, Black-necked Stilt,
Long-billed Curlew, Marbled Godwit, Marsh
Wren and Yellow-headed Blackbird.
Days 3 & 4
Today we leave the Salt Lake conurbation behind
and head south to our first taste of the splendid
scenery for which southern Utah is renowned –
Bryce Canyon, where we stay nearby for the next
two nights. In the Bryce Canyon National Park the
combination of winter frosts and summer rains
have cut the rock into thousands of pillars and
pinnacles creating scenery quite unlike that
encountered anywhere else on the tour. The Rim
Trail overlooks natural Bryce Amphitheatre, an
eroded basin that covers six square miles. During
the day we explore the park, perhaps ending
appropriately at Sunset Point! Birds here include
White-throated Swift, Violet-green Swallow,
Townsend's Solitaire, Western and Mountain
Bluebirds, Mountain Chickadee, Grace's Warbler
and Green-tailed Towhee. Watching the sunrise
from the canyon rim can be magical!
Days 5 to 7
After a last look around Bryce it will be time to
move on to Zion National Park, our base for the
next three nights. The road into the park is quite a
civil engineering feat that includes a winding milelong
tunnel through the mountains. We will stop to
bird and take photographs on the way at a number
of sites including Checkerboard Mesa. As we
approach Zion Canyon, we have our first views of
the massive ramparts that overlook the stands of
cottonwoods below. Zion National Park, which
covers almost 60,000 hectares, was once a desert,
where the winds blew red and white sand to form
one dune above another to create layers of Navajo
Sandstone. Since then it has been eroded by the
elements ever since. It is hard to imagine the
power of the Virgin River to carve such a place. In
the canyon bottom cottonwoods and willows, and
nearby cactus and mesquite, provide a change of
habitat. At higher elevations we encounter the
piñyon-juniper belt that will become such a feature
of the high country during this tour. In these diverse
habitats we will be looking for California Condor,
Golden Eagle, Wild Turkey, Rock and Canyon
Wrens, American Dipper, Gray and Warbling
Vireos, Black-throated Gray and Virginia's
Warblers, Western Tanager, Black-headed and
Blue Grosbeaks and the beautiful Lazuli Bunting.
The scenery is tremendous with many distinctive
features such as the Court of the Patriarchs,
Western Temple, the White Throne and Weeping
Rock.
Days 8 & 9
This morning we continue south and cross into
Arizona to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon
Zion Canyon
12
For a previous tour report or further information please call: 01794 519445