NATIONAL PARK X 2

We were up and at em early this morning to be on time for our guided tour of Zion National Park…….Jutta figured we have one day to take all this in so we might as well have someone who knows their way around lead the way. Our hookup time is 7am at the visitor centre just inside the park gates, and Darren our guide is on time and ready to go. Some of the trails are restricted to those who prearranged passes, which for me is great because a couple of them look pretty scary……..I have a thing about exposed edges, not necessarily heights, but if there is and exposed edge compounded with height, I’m losing my shit. So it is agreed we will proceed on the open trails and I am going to have to suck it up and put on my big boy pants when the exposed edges appear.

First however is a ride on one of the many bus shuttles that will take us deep into the canyon for our first hike………something like 40 shuttles might be operating at the same time, arriving at designated stops every 5 minutes or so…….they probably carry 60-70 seated passengers, and just as many standing, but again our timing is perfect……..the park is not very busy today and we are early in the day, shuttle virtually empty. Darren is a wealth of knowledge, and we pepper him with questions on the way………everything from geology, to history, to who are these Mormons anyway. The hike begins following the Virgin River heading upstream……..it is an out and back, with many interesting points along the way………one thing we didn’t know about was the “river walk” option…….plenty of folks wearing these really attractive waterproof pants, and waterproof hikers, so when the trail end at a bend in the river, they walk in, and continue upstream through narrows of the canyon. Pretty cool, but you would need an extra day to do that and still see all we have in store.

Another short shuttle ride to the next trailhead at Zion Lodge……..didn’t know you can actually book rooms and stay within the park……..apparently they are on the older side, but nothing beats staying on the property! Our next hike is to Emerald Pools, and we decide to visit upper, middle, and lower, so it’s the Full Monty. Nice trail with some good elevation gain, and yes, some exposed edges, but I am being good so far. The pools exist because water comes out of the rock face above and collects on flat sections of rock below. Of course we ask Darren, and he tells us that it is a proven fact that some of the water exiting the rocks originated from snow or precipitation on top of the mountain, and has worked its way through the mountainside over the course of 1,300 years. Whaaaaat? It’s true. Not all the water takes that route, but a lot of it does, and that is why the water was still streaming and there has been no rain for a while in the park. We thought the marks on the rock was graffiti, but it is just the staining caused by whatever the water picked up on the way through.

Back down at river level, we are on the shuttle once again to go to The Grotto for lunch. Out shuttle driver is the best that Darren has ever heard (they have microphone and speakers in the bus, but some don’t even talk)…….the gentleman’s name was Russ Herminson, an elderly man, and he obviously had a boatload of first hand knowledge of the park, and in particular climbing routes for all the mountains and rock faces we were passing. Russ was a climber, and he and his son climbed together for many years in the park and beyond……..amazing to see how he is now sharing his knowledge and stories with all who are lucky enough to board his shuttle. The Grotto is a beautiful spot, and home to a couple of stone buildings, dating back to the 1930’s, when they were constructed so that artists could be invited to come and stay in the park………..an Artist in Residence Program is still maintained by the National Park and they still stay in these small homes.

While talking over lunch and listening to Darren, we come to realize that there is a much bigger picture that we are not seeing simply by visiting Zion. Turns out there is this much larger area referred to as the Colorado Plateau which stretches into northern Utah , and particularly through Bryce Canyon National Park, through Zion, and down to Grand Canyon. Many forces were at work over the course of millions of years, but the one event that took place, again over millions of years, was the lifting of the plateau………it didn’t lift evenly, so when you see all those layered rocks in our pictures, they are consistent in all the areas, but they appear at different levels……Darren explained……..the bottom layer of rock you see at Bryce Canyon is the top layer at Zion, and the bottom layer at Zion is the top layer at Grand Canyon…………forming what is known as the Grand Staircase………all very interesting, but all I know is that they are visually stunning………pictures don’t do them justice.

It must be done………we must go to Bryce Canyon to see this for ourselves. Darren tells us it will take 1hr 15min to get to Bryce, and we decide we are going……..today……..we hoof it back to the visitor centre along the River Trail……..see some more cool shit along the way, and we are in the truck and moving out. It takes more like 1hr 45min to get there, but oh my god……….if you have been there you already know………never ever seen anything like this……..absolutely mind boggling how this happened and why these rock formations exist. We don’t do any hikes because time is short, but stop at all the view points, and pass through Red Canyon on the way back out. Stunning………

Our plans for dinner are now trashed because of this little side trip, but after pushing in Plan B on the GPS, we realize we can be back in Leeds in time to catch dinner once again at Tequilana. That is 3 nights in a row, and they did it again tonight. We never ordered the same thing, and everything they served us was terrific. Love this place. Such care taken, and pride in what they make. If you are ever in the area it is worth the trip.