Day 28 – Zion National Park

Miles traveled: 150
Hours on Road: 11
States covered: 1 – Utah

We woke to the sound of our neighbor hacking up a lung. He didn’t snore as loudly as I had anticipated, but he sure could hack that phlegm. We later saw all four of them sitting around their fire smoking more cigarettes. Makes you wonder.

It was freezing when we woke up. Isn’t this supposed to be a desert? We were up and going by 8:08 a.m. since we had an hour and a half drive to Zion. For some reason, lately Trey has been calling Cal “Carmine,” and stranger still, Cal’s been answering to it.

As we drove out of our road from the campground, across the street is a horse rental place. Cal noticed that the sign said, “No age or weight limit.” They better have some big work horses over there, because I’ve seen some huge people in the area. I’m not one to criticize, especially after one very embarrassing situation I found myself in once upon a time, I’m just saying.

Jeff and I had traveled to Belize many years ago to visit a friend of ours who was in the Peace Corps, and I had planned that we would go horseback riding through some ancient ruins. The day before we were to go riding, I called the riding guides to confirm our reservation, at which point they asked what our weights were. I realized they wanted to know our weights so they could prepare the proper horses, and under more private circumstances I would have had no problem telling them my real weight. But the friend we were visiting was within hearing distance, and if he were to hear how much I weighed, well, somehow I’d look fatter. So I lied. Rational thought and vanity never walk side by side.
The next day, we arrived at the farm and the owners came out to greet us. After saying “hola” they walked away together to converse. When they came back, the woman who would be our guide turned to me and said, in a very matter-of-fact way, “I thought you’d be smaller.” The only response I could come up with was, “So did I.”
Jeff ended up riding the horse that was intended for me, and I ended up riding the larger horse that was intended for Jeff. That is not to say my horse was large, it was just larger than the other horse. While the horses did not appear mistreated or malnourished, and I know they weren’t ponies, they were very small horses, just like there are small people, of which I am not one. When the ride was over and the saddle removed, the horse I had been on lowered himself to the ground, rolled over on his back, and kicked his feet in the air. I thought for sure I’d killed him. As he wriggled around, I realized he was simply scratching his back and cleaning the sweat off.

I don’t care if the sign says there’s no age or weight limit. You’ll never catch me riding a rented trail horse again!

Before we got to Zion, we stopped to buy groceries. We got stuff for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Unfortunately, I forgot to get coffee, and I believe that helped to contribute to the headache I suffered later in the day.

There are a three sections to Zion (at least that’s what I have come away believing). There’s Kolob Canyons to the north, Zion Canyon in the center, and to the east, where we entered, there are mainly natural stone carvings and mesas, such as the famous Checkerboard Mesa. You drive through this area on the Zion – Mount Carmel Highway. About six miles after you go through the entrance you reach the mile long tunnel that has been blasted through the mountain. They blew some holes out the side of the mountain along the tunnel so you get an occasional view as you drive through the earth. The tunnel is pretty small, so when a large vehicle, such as an RV goes through, traffic is stopped one way, and the large vehicle drives directly down the center of the tunnel. Not exactly convenient, but I guess when they built the tunnel (I think in the 1930s) they had no idea that vehicles would get so large. We followed an RV through, and when we reached the other side, we were greeted with the steep canyon walls that make Zion so exciting. Unfortunately, directly outside the tunnel, the road curves to the left and the never-ending switchbacks of torture begin. These switchbacks would be bad enough for me on a good day, but at the time I had to drive them, they were not paved. All the asphalt had been stripped, and I had to drive down a dirt road that descended more than 500 feet, weaving back and forth, back and forth. Most of the time the walls that are normally present along the sides were missing, so any error with the foot pedal and, zoom, you were going off the edge.

By the time I’d reached the bottom I’d already decided that we were not going to even attempt Angel’s Landing, the most popular hike in the canyon. My heart just couldn’t take it. At the Visitors Center, the description of the hike includes a side note that anyone with any height issues at all should not attempt the climb. I crossed that off our list. The boys were pretty disappointed, but they said they understood. I told them one day we’d return with Dad, and they could climb it then while I rested with a beer in the lodge.

Something we found out the hard way, and that not one person who had been to Zion and spoke to me about the park mentioned, is that if you want to travel up Zion Canyon Scenic Drive, where all the hikes seem to be, you must go by shuttle. We knew there was a shuttle, but we opted to drive ourselves. Only we couldn’t. We never asked about it at the Visitors Center, so by the time we realized we needed to take the shuttle, we had driven back to where the scenic drive begins and then driven back past the Visitors Center out the gate at the west entrance and finally stopped at a coffee shop where I asked the girl behind the counter what the scoop was. She told me what to do, and we finally found our way. The shuttle is free and is meant to cut down on traffic. You hop on at the Visitors Center and can get off at any of the eight stops along the way to the Temple of Sinawava, where you can continue on foot along the Riverside Walk, which we did, that leads to the Narrows Walk, which we didn’t do. The Narrows is a five hour hike, and there’s the potential of flash flooding from which there is no escape. We saw several cute squirrels along the walk and one giant, fat one.

On the way down the shuttle route, we stopped at Big Bend, where we saw people up on Angel’s Landing walking along the slim ridge where there is only a chain connected to metal poles to hold onto. We could see they were walking right along the edge of the cliff. I was getting dizzy watching them from the safety of the valley; there’s no way I could have done that climb.

Our final stop before leaving was the Zion Human History Museum. We saw a beautiful movie on the park, and then we headed out. We were glad we left when we did because a storm was coming in. The drive up the switchbacks was not as bad as the drive down. Going uphill is always easier for me. We were behind a truck pulling a large trailer, so he went really slow, which I appreciated. There was a van in front of the truck, and the van kept stopping, presumably to take photos. I can only imagine how much that ticked off the truck driver. It can’t be easy to start moving from a standstill on a dirt uphill drive while pulling a heavy camper.

As soon as we reached the end of the tunnel the rain was pouring down on us. The lightning was blasting away in its typical violent fashion, as it had done for the past seven days in a row. Then the hail started. There were a couple people on a motorcycle not far ahead of us. Boy we felt sorry for them. Especially when the downpour started. The hail had been bad enough, but then a monsoon came through. We stopped at a souvenir shop we’d seen on the way in, and even that was flooding. I asked the guy if it rained like that very often. He said, “No. Only about once a summer.” Of course it was when we were there. At that moment we were especially glad that we had not gone on the Narrows hike.

On the way back to our camp we got a photo of a sign we had noticed on our way out: “Lotto, gun, ammo, beer.” You gotta love Arizona.

Also on the way home, Parker had not programmed Lee to our campground but rather to the general area. I was nearly dying by this time; it had been a long day and the stress of driving dirt switchbacks and then driving through a violent storm had gotten to me. When we turned down Rt. 67 and Lee said we had eight more miles to go, I said, “I could have sworn we were closer than that.” But no one said anything, so I drove on. Then, in the middle of nowhere, Lee said we had arrived. It was at that point that Parker told me he’d put just the highway number in the GPS, not the camp address. We’d gone eight miles past our road!! I said to Cal, “Did you see that horse farm?” He said, “Yes.” “Why didn’t you say anything?” “I thought you knew and just wanted to keep driving.” I could have killed him – all of them. I had, at this point, reached my limit of exhaustion. All the traveling had caught up with me, I hadn’t had any coffee all day, and I had a splitting headache.

For the first time the whole trip, I drove 75 mph. The speed limit was 55, but I didn’t care. I drove into the campground, got to our campsite, turned off the van, gave Parker the keys, and said, “You’re on your own. I’ll get up when my headache’s gone.” And I went to bed.

I got up around 8 p.m., just to make sure the kids ate a little something, but I was back in bed by 9. The loud, obnoxious group of people who arrived at their campsite around 9:30 didn’t even bother me. I fell fast asleep.

For corresponding photos, go to:
http://www5.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=1925915027/a=2740108027_2740108027/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/