Zion National Park

I just returned from six days in Zion. I spent the first four in the back country, and the last one and a half in the main Zion Canyon. I got lotsa pictures, so I'll try to organize chronologically.

The day I arrived, I stayed in Springdale, the resort town just outside the park, where I indulged in prawn tacos and a fancy hotel. Then, I loaded up my new 2-liter water bottle (which weighs four and a half pounds when full), about twice as much food and clothing as I needed, and met my shuttle to the trailhead early the next morning.

Day 1
The first day of hiking had some interesting moments, but overall wasn't that spectacular. It was up in the high country, away from the main rock formations of Zion Canyon, and was mostly a pleasant, if relatively boring, walk through the trees. There were a few spots where strange formations rose out of the forest.

"Job's Head." All the formations have religious names. Some sources say each one was named by Mormons, but others say that after "Zion" got its name from them, everyone else just went with the theme.

There was also a spur trail to an overlook, which gave the first glimpse of the truly weird formations of the Zion Canyon.

"Guardian Angel," one of many cone-shaped formations

There was no one around for me to point out that this one looks just like Jabba the Hut.

I camped on the edge between a pleasant meadow and a steep, but otherwise unremarkable, canyon.

Day 2
The next day continued along the ridges, but with a much more open landscape, with big Ponderosa pines and occasional glimpses of some of the high plateaus north of the park. The trail was also covered in wildflowers.

Then, as I neared the end of the hike, and my campsite, the trail wandered toward the edge of the mesa, where the views opened up and started to get truly bizarre.

OMG u are so weird.

Notice a second view of the Guardian Angel toward the right of the picture.

Why can't u b normal!?

The campsite that evening was back a ways from the big views, but was underneath some lovely pines, and I was grateful for the shade. Plus, I woke up the next morning to deer browsing outside the tent.

Twin leaning Ponderosa pines. Lots of them are lightning-struck. Also their sap smells like citrus caramel. Also they are one of my new favorite trees.

Very tame, but left behind clouds of black flies every time they got close.

Also their bark looks like jigsaw puzzles. The gaps are lightning scars.

 

Day 3

I was staying for two nights at the same site, so on this day, I gave my feet a break and did a short loop around a high-country trail. It descended into a little valley that, like the first day's hike, was really boring. It was clear that the spectacular scenery would be the next day, especially with this preview from the camp's only water source:

Tomorrow's trail!

That water source was really gnarly looking , with a pool full of green and swimmy stuff. My UV sterilizer kept me healthy on previous trips, but I'd never relied on it with such bad water before. Plus, the sterilizer can't filter out particles. Since I had the time and extra fuel, I decided to let the water sit until most of the gunk settled out, and then boil it.

That night, as I was getting ready for bed, I spotted a man walking down the trail carrying two huge backpacks, one in front, and one behind. Then, a ways behind him, a girl followed, limping painfully. The man stopped by and asked if any of the campsites were open. The pair had started a serious canyoneering trip, with rappelling and wet suits and everything, but the girl unaccountably got enormous, severe blisters on her feet and could barely walk, so they had to stop for the night and then hike out. All the back country sites require reservations, but my campsite was technically a "group" site, with spaces for several tents, so I invited them to stay. They were from Costa Rica, and had been planning this trip for almost a year. Luckily, they'd done a few shorter canyoneering trips in the previous two days, so they didn't miss out entirely, but still, I felt bad!

Day 4

We both set out the next day for the most spectacular part of the trail: the descent down into Zion Canyon itself. On this trip, I got to walk down and through all those weird formations I'd seen from above.

The rock formations are basically petrified sand dunes, hence the sand-dune-ish curves and swirls.

Up close, you can see bands where the dunes blew in different directions as they formed.

The trail started at the top of the red wall.

After getting into the main valley, I did a side trip up Angel's Landing, a super precarious scramble up a narrow slick-rock spine with chains guarding the way. I only took photos at the top, as stopping and gawking wasn't an option, especially since it was extremely crowded.

By Tony Crabtree - Original work by author., CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7547844

The trail runs up the spine of the formation. By Mountain walrus - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18944430

The view from the top.

That was my last day of the extended back-country hiking. I ended in a campground in the main canyon floor, where I met up for dinner with my old friend Tyler, who's touring the west in search of warm and affordable climes. An excellent way to end the trek!

Day 5

I'd had ambitious plans to do a steep, 8-mile trek to the top of another viewpoint, but the canyon-floor heat and some sore feet led me to take it easy. I rode the Zion Canyon shuttle to a few low-and-easy scenic walks in the main part of the park.

"The Court of the Patriarchs"

 I ended the day at the farthest stop up the canyon, on a river walk up to the Narrows. The sun was just leaving the highest rock formations.

Temperatures cool in the shade and moisture of the canyon.

Notice the two hikers at the bottom for scale.

Day 6

This was my last morning in the park. It turned out to be a longer morning than I planned, as my flight got cancelled, and I had to book one going back 2 hours later (though after a rather leisurely breakfast out, I was cutting it close to make the original flight anyway). 

I took the opportunity to get up early and drive through the Mount Carmel Tunnel on the eastern side of the park and hike to an overlook, where a few people also made it up for the sunrise.

The first rays of the sun hit the West Temple formation

The road leading up to the tunnel, for scale.

Proper footwear recommended.

After a delicious breakfast back in Springdale, I hit the highway to Las Vegas, and back home!

Back to Zion

Seven years ago--SEVEN!--I took six months off my freelance job and backpacked through dozens of national parks of the American West. On that list was Zion National Park, in southern Utah.

While I was on that trip, I rearranged my schedule so that I ended up vising the Colorado Plateau at the very end, when the area was well into winter. During my short stay in Bryce Canyon, virtually next-door to Zion, the daytime temperature was in the teens, and snow had closed many of the hiking trails.
As I wrote on this blog at the time about southern Utah:

I'm trying not to have regrets over the way this trip fell into place, but if I'd had more time, I'd have spent it here.

 "Someday," I thought to myself.

Well, I'm about to turn 40, and I decided that I wanted to do something to celebrate. So I'm heading back to Zion, to cover the biggest park that I missed on that first trip. I'll be there from May 12 to May 18 (I couldn't book it for my actual birthday, as summer fills up quickly).

My original plan was to do the Trans-Zion Trek, a 4- to 5-day wilderness trip that travels the entire width of the park from west to east. Unfortunately, that plan got scuttled near the last minute, because it turns out that they're closing and repairing the only road that brings visitors to the westernmost trail head for exactly the month of May, when my birthday is. So instead, I'm starting at the second-westernmost trailhead, and spending an extra night at a back-country campsite just outside the main valley. So I'll be in the wilderness for the same amount of time, but for the first couple of days, I'll be doing out-and-back day hikes from a base camp, rather than trekking from one point to the next.

I sort-of-ish wish I could say I did the whole Trans-Zion Trek, but for real, I want to: 1. Be there, 2. Be away from crowds, 3. Go where I want, and 4. Still be 39 years old, and this trip still accomplishes all those things.

After several solo jaunts since that long-ago trip, I (obviously) am not spending an entire year obsessing about gearing up and logistics and all. However, I might have over-corrected, as I recently realized that I'm about two weeks away from departure, and I'm only now starting to cook and dehydrate foods and figure out which camping gear needs upgrading/replacement. Luckily, I did obsess enough to actually book all my reservations in time.

In case y'all desperately need me to go on about equipment:

1. Seven years ago, I bought a bunch of Darn Tough hiking socks. I liked them so much that I turned them into my daily-use socks when I got home from the trip. I'm going to use them--the exact same physical socks!--to hike on this trip, too. Darn Tough, indeed. Shout out to VT.
2. The trail-running sneakers I eventually settled on held up for over 400 miles. I bought another version of the same model, and I don't even plan on bringing my boots on this desert jaunt.
3. This was the coffee maker I settled on (cup is not included). I clipped off the little chicken-feet that suspend it above the cup. When I make a coffee, I set the mesh diaphragm directly in the mug and let it steep for maybe 1 minute. I refer to it, like a royal title, as the World's Smallest Coffeemaker. Like the socks, it's so effective that I have it in daily use. 
4. I'm going to need a new water-carrying system, as the Nalgene bottles were always a little weird and heavy. 
5. Does anyone know where my poop shovel went? Where would I have misplaced a poop shovel? Who would take a poop shovel? I think it's with the Island Gear. I'll probably just get a new one.
6. I really should be glad that I'm not doing the Trans-Zion Trek, as one thing I also haven't thought much about is getting in shape, and it's been a loooooong winter (shoveling and snowboarding notwithstanding). Better to go on day hikes that I can cut short than to have to cover miles to make the next camp.

Another new development that has arrived since my first trip is that I've started seriously painting, and have done a number of pieces from photos from that first Western trip. So while I hope to update this blog with lots of photos when I get back, I also plan on gathering material for new desert landscapes.