Zion's National Park (Sweet!) and the Grand Canyon (meh...)

So when everything was done on Friday and I walked out of work and we hit the road, I was completely free.  Since then we’ve done a lot, but it has been bliss.  From work we went to Ben and Suzannah’s house for the weekend, and had a lot of fun there, including a cheese night.   

Monday morning we took off from there and drove to Hurricane, UT, in preparation for going to Zion’s National Park.   

It was an incredible place, a canyon that is surrounded by 3 thousand foot shear red limestone walls on all sides.  It made me feel really tiny in comparison.  That first afternoon we got our park pass and drove around a little, rented our hiking gear, and then back to our great hotel room.  We had booked it on Expedia, and it was a 2-star hotel, but it had a king-sized comfortable bed, a kitchen with a full fridge and oven, a nice bathroom, pool, and free wifi and it was super cheap!  Tuesday we were up bright and early for something that I wanted to do for a long, long time – hike the Narrows of Zion (in awesome river shoes).   

 

It’s a hike that takes you along (and in!) the river that formed the canyon, sometimes on the banks, but most of the time you are hiking in the river itself.  The water cut through the sandstone rock, and most of the time you are in a canyon that is only 10-20 feet wide, with thousands of feet of sandstone cliff on each side – just incredible!  

 The water height ranged from knee to chest deep, and was pleasantly cool in comparison to the hot desert air.  We got there early, which meant we got to experience constantly changing scenery as the sun and shadows mingled and danced their way down the wavy sandstone cliffs.  After about 4 hours we started getting fatigued, so we turned around, and made it back in an hour and a half.  Our favorite part (of many) was when we found and explored a “slot” canyon that branched off the main path.  It was only 6 feet wide, very confined, but with towering cliffs on both sides, reminiscent of a maze.  We got back to the car, after taking Zion’s cool shuttle, and we were exhausted, having traveled approximately 12 miles.  It’s hard to say because the canyons were so curvy and it was impossible to stay oriented.  It was all-around fun though!

On our second day in Zion’s, we got up bright and early (again!) to go do a hike called Angel’s Landing.  

 It got its name from a minister who, upon seeing it, said “Surely this is where the angels will land to greet the Lord at the Great White Throne.”  This is a reference to the mountain next to it that, I suppose, looks like a great white throne if you squint just right, have sand in your eyes, and have a creative imagination. 

Great...White...Throne???

Angel’s Landing itself is a thousand foot plateau that has a tiny ridge along the top.  So after taking the awesome shuttle service again, we began hiking to the top of this thing around 8:00.  The trail followed the river along the valley for a ways, but then started to climb the sides.  Eventually it became a series of winding switchbacks that were very steep! 

Once again we were fortunate to get an early start so the sun wasn’t killer just yet.  At the top of the (first) switchbacks, we came into a narrow canyon, but it was cool and flat which was much needed because our legs and feet were still sore from the day before.  After approximately a half mile though, the switchbacks began again, and these were even crazier and steeper than the last, with a turn, then about a 20 foot straightaway, then another turn, then another straightaway, then another turn… they just kept going!  It was fun to look up or down the trail and see the people’s heads bob along, back and forth and back and forth like mice in a maze.  

These switchbacks were called something like the Wiggly Wiggles...he he he

We made it to the top of those after what seemed like hours, and were greeted with a great view of Zion’s, the valley, and the other huge red and white cliffs that line the valley.  Ahead lay the most difficult, dangerous, and awe-inspiring part of the climb though.  Between the small plateau that we were on and the plateau that is the final destination was a tiny red ridge that snake its way up, up, and away from us like the bumpy spine of a giant, rocky beast.  On both sides of the narrow (10-20 feet, narrowing down to less than 5) ridge were extreme exposures of a thousand feet plus. 

Danger is my middle name.  Brannan "Danger" Beasley?  Yes, that's right

Thankfully on the steep and/or narrow parts there were poles drilled into the rock with chains dangling between them to hold onto.  We tentatively made our way over and up this crazy path, taking pictures along the way, and pausing when necessary to allow others to pass, as most places would only permit one person at a time to safely walk (or sometimes crawl).  We finally made it to the top and were greatly rewarded with an amazing and sweeping view of the park, the valley, and high-altitude, close-up views of the surrounding peaks. 

Can you spot the Melanie in this picture?

 

We drank it in and enjoyed it, taking tons of pictures.  After being accosted by greedy chipmunks, and laughing at the crazy characters around us, including some hilarious, arguing orthodox Jewish kids, we dragged our tired bones to the bottom.  We were surprised on the way down to see people beginning such a challenging hike in the heat of the day, but I guess not everyone wants to get up early.  After making it down, we went and saw the Weeping Rock, which is where water seeps through several thousand feet of rock until it if forced out the sides by a harder layer of rock.  It was pretty neat.  

We also did another climb but by that time we were so tired that it didn’t make much of an impression on us.  Then we drove to the Grand Canyon, looked at and were underwhelmed and sort of bored by it and the super expensive motel room we had to get, watched the sunrise, and drove to Vegas, which we are preparing to leave right now.  Sad to say the Grand Canyon wasn’t that awesome, I mean it was pretty but besides look at it, which you can do for maybe half an hour, there’s nothing really to do.  

Yep - it's Grand, and it's a Canyon - not easily impressed.

Sooooooo stinking hot!!!

I wanted to be awe-struck, but we really like Zion’s a lot more, both in terms of things to do and overall impressiveness.  One thing we did notice is that at Zion’s we heard more foreign languages than English (we think), and we wondered how these people heard about it.  I mean, we live like 7 hours (driving) away, and we’re pretty outdoorsy, and we’d never been there.  Interesting!  Anyways, more to come!