I have never been so in love with one place as I am with Zion National Park. We caught the 5:45 shuttle into the park on Sunday and headed to the Angel’s Landing trailhead. The trail itself is only 0.5 miles long, but you have to hike 2 miles to get to it. The hike is listed as strenuous in the guidebooks and there is a warning that you shouldn’t hike it if you are afraid of heights. We headed up the mountain, hoping for a glimpse of the sunrise when we got to the top. Since we were blocked by hills, the light itself got to us before the sun came over the hills, so we were able to see our way on the trail. It was quite a challenging hike, despite its being mostly paved. I haven’t a clue how they got cement up there, but I can tell you that some parts looked like the old driveway at 120 Montverde Dr.
We got to the end of the 2 mile section and could see that we had made it in time to watch the sunrise. The last part is along the rocky spine of a ridge and many parts have chains along the “trail” for you to hold on to. There are spots where the rocks have steps that have worn into them over time, but there is a lot of your own skill (and holding tightly to the chain) involved. We made the climb quite well considering it took a lot longer than any half mile on the trail to it. We got to the end in time to see the sun come over the canyon edge and light the top of the ridges. Absolutely beautiful. The canyon was as stunning as the sunrise itself. We probably sat at the top of the peak for 45 minutes, staring out and enjoying the beautiful weather The pictures of the trail are there in the slideshow to show you why I am so proud of myself for completing this hike. We made a friend at the top, a German man who we ended up hiking all the way down with. We talked about schools and travel and all of the differences between the US and Germany. Very cool dude.
We got back, hopped into the car, and got on the road. The route took us out of Utah, across the top corner of Arizona, and into Nevada. In Nevada, we went through Las Vegas, which is quite hard to miss from miles away, because there is nothing to block the view (that means no trees). The city is truly as tacky as you might believe it to be. If I were loaded, I’d go shopping there. I’m not loaded. We drove down the strip (traffic was AWFUL. Big surprise, right?) and saw all of the casinos and whatnot. There was a Donny and Marie show, plenty of half-naked showgirls, and there were FOUR Cirque Du Soleil shows. We stopped on the south end of town, where the Las Vegas sign has been moved, and hopped out to take a picture (it is apparently quite acceptable to stop in the road for this sign, as there were about 8 cars stopped).
After we escaped Vegas, we headed southeast toward the Hoover Dam. To cross the Hoover Dam (or get within a mile of it), you have to be inspected. This caused a traffic backup of four miles. The traffic was moving, but only just. But I didn’t care, because I wanted to see the dam and because we had to cross it to get to the Grand Canyon. It was frying hot. Enough that when we opened the window for air, it was too hot. We got inspected, which consisted of a man standing by the road and waving us on. Yeah. All that traffic. We’re not really sure what his criteria for stopping you are, because he really didn’t look at the car at all. We parked and hopped out and went to explore. I was a little bit more than excited. Okay, I was making squeaking noises because it was so stinking cool. We walked down on one side and back on the other. The sheer size of the thing is astounding. I mean, I’ve heard about it many many times before, but I never really fathomed how big it is. The water on the backside was well over 100 feet below us. As I mentioned, it was hot. Ben’s watch said it was 103 in the shade and easily over 110 in the sun. Which caused me to get dizzy very quickly and have to seek refuge in the shade several times. Thankfully, we made it back to the car before I started seeing black and white (which has happened every time I’ve been near passing out). I drank enough water to cause me to need the bathroom quite frequently for the rest of the drive and sat with my face in the vents.
We headed out across Arizona and were surprised to eventually encounter some trees. How strange. We always assumed that there was only desert there. We got to our turn (Williams, I think) and headed due north for the Grand Canyon. We came into the park and were again surprised by the trees. We assumed that it shouldn’t be too hard to find a ginormous hole in the ground. We checked in to our campground and went to get firewood before attempting to decipher the map and get to the rim. We found the trail and started walking. It turns out that you can only see the canyon once you’re within about 100 yards of the rim, because of the tree growth. We had gotten there right at sunset, so we found a spot to sit and took pictures. So, now that I’ve gushed about all of the other stuff we saw on Sunday, I am at a loss for words to describe the Grand Canyon. It’s the most to-the-point name in the National Park system. It’s bigger than I ever imagined it would be. I can’t even begin to tell you how stunned I was at the sight. So I won’t. We made a campfire and roasted hot dogs for dinner. We slept with the tent fly off so that we could see the stars. It ended up being a bit cool in the morning, but that story is for the next blog post.
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