Saturday, October 19 – Sunday, October 27
I arrived at Zion National Park Saturday afternoon. I had an interesting drive from Cathedral Gorge in Nevada. It was a nice, sunny morning when I awoke. I did not rush to leave. There is not a whole lot of “rushing” going on these days. What for?
Google Maps showed me my route. It was 111 miles and would take me about two hours. I started driving. I decided to make some phone calls (voice activated) as I drove over the high desert roads. I called Dee at Sesame Seed. No answer. I called Linda, who is traveling fulltime around the country in her RV. I had not talked with her in a few weeks and had learned, via email recently, she was in Texas, at Guadalupe Mountains National Park. We had met almost a year ago at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, and we have stayed in touch through a combination of texts, emails, and phone calls. As we talked, two things happened regarding my route. One was that I was paying more attention to our conversation than I was to road signs, apparently. The other was that Google Maps changed my route without notifying me of its plans. The combination of these things resulted in my missing a turn for Route 18, towards St. George, and continuing on Route 56 towards Cedar City. The change in plans became visual when, after unknowingly missing my turn, I noticed I was heading straight towards snow covered mountains! It was then that I noted the change on Google Maps. Not only was I heading for mountains, but the map also showed there was an “unpaved” section of road ahead. I ended the call to Linda, as we were pretty much caught up on things, and I felt the need to figure out if I should continue this route or turn around.
Within a couple of miles, I learned that Google was wrong about an unpaved section. I passed that section, it was paved. But yes, I was going to pass through some higher altitude. The temperature went down as low as 37 degrees. I turned the heat on for the first time in many weeks. There was 4” or so of snow along the sides of the road, remnants of precipitation two nights ago. It had rained at Cathedral Gorge Thursday night, and the next morning as I gazed the horizon in several directions, I could see snow in the upper elevations. My “detour” put me into and over one of those mountain ranges and added about twenty miles to my drive. It all worked out. It all worked out fine.
I arrived at Zion and set up in my campsite, A18. It has a wonderful view of the sandstone monoliths that define the park, east and west, particularly one called The Watchman. I texted another friend, Regina, who was going to meet me here, and she came by within a half hour. She and I met at Big Bend National Park in February 2023 and have stayed in touch. She is from Quebec. I had room at my site for two vehicles. She has a silver, Dodge ProMaster, a van similar to mine, and she stayed in A18 with me for five days.
She also has a cute dog named Picot, so friendly and energetic! Picot was a magnet for some kids at the campground. He loved interacting with them, and his personality and wagging tail apparently attracted several kids in our “neighborhood” who wanted to pet him. Fun to watch and experience. Interesting that, with a dog at our campsite, we end up meeting other people who are out walking their dogs. The dogs want to meet each other, too!
On our walk through town, Regina asked me to take Picot’s leash for a while, as he was pulling her hard on our walk. I am not sure why I did this, maybe it was to keep him from running up to other people as we walked, but I held the leash in such a way that he could not run ahead of us, as he had been doing. I held the leash so that he had to walk right next to me. It worked great. He stopped running. He stayed in his lane, so to speak. Picot is a rescue dog. It became obvious that he has had some training from a previous owner, as he responded to this change so easily.
Regina and I took a walk our first night here into Springdale. I think the town exists mainly to support the park’s visitors. I counted fifteen hotels along the main stretch of road, which was about a mile long, as well as six coffee shops, several restaurants, and a handful of outfitter shops where people can rent gear for hiking The Narrows as well as eBikes for riding the eight-mile combination of trail and road portion of Zion Canyon. I have never seen as many eBikes anywhere as I have on my visits to Zion. The canyon is closed to most traffic. There is a shuttle bus system that transports visitors up and down at a number of stops. The shuttles are generally packed, running every ten minutes or so. They advertise that they have a new fleet of electric buses that have replaced their propane fueled shuttles, but I saw several propane buses while I was riding.
The Narrows is a section of Zion Canyon where the Virgin River has narrowly cut its way through the sandstone. The river can be anywhere from 10-30 yards wide, and the rock walls rise hundreds or even a thousand feet on either side. One can hike upstream about six miles without a permit, while a permit is needed for the entire seventeen-mile hike, which is almost completely in the river. It’s a pretty amazing place and an amazing experience to “Hike the Narrows.” These outfitters rent special suits and shoes, as well as long, wood poles, for the hike. The riverbed is very rocky. The water is cold, around 50 degrees, and staying dry is important. I talked with a couple from Knoxville yesterday who had hiked upstream two miles. Out and back, it took them six hours.
I have done a hike on the Watchman Trail two times this week. I have gone solo as dogs are not allowed on the trail. It is four-mile roundtrip from the campground with an elevation change of about 400’. It has great views and is strenuous enough to give one a great workout. There is something fantastic about experiencing nature in a combination of external and internal stimuli. The external here is the physical environment. There are the sandstone structures rising thousands of feet, which are visually stimulating and awe-inspiring. There is the natural environment of trees and other vegetation, as well as some birds and other animals. I saw a butterfly yesterday! Of course there is the trail, particularly, in my opinion, the uphill sections which makes one work harder, increase the heartrate and blood circulation, and breathe deeper.
Another thing I like about these trails is the opportunity to meet and talk with people from all over the country and all over the world. Whether it is simply a short conversation that involves taking photos of each other, “Can you take a picture for me?” or as I often do, I ask if they would like me to take a photo of them (as they are doing selfies), or something more lengthy about each other’s trips and experiences, it is a fun thing. It is an opportunity.
In addition to the hikes on Watchman Trail I did Angel’s Landing. I have seen several different listings of data about it in terms of numbers, and they do not all agree, but it’s generally about five miles round-trip and with an elevation change of about 1,500 feet. It gains about 1,500 feet over about two and a half miles. The last half mile is along a steep, narrow spine of rock with drop-offs of up to a thousand feet along much of the way. There are chains anchored into the rock to provide “security.” One can hold the chain as they walk along these sections and also help pull themselves up (or lower themselves down) as they negotiate the Still, it can be very intimidating.
This was my fourth time hiking Angel’s Landing. I think it was my least crowded experience. The trail is truly narrow, with only enough room for single file movement along much of the way. This means hikers going in one direction must step aside, where there is room, to let hikers pass from the other direction. It’s like a one-way road at a construction project. Fortunately, kindly behavior seems to be prevalent. I think the physical characteristics of the hike help to create a sense of community along the trail, people joined by a sense of emotions and thoughts. People are generally patient and joyfully accommodating.
I have been doing a fair amount of biking while here, riding four of the eight days here and doing about 150 miles. I ride up and down the canyon. It’s a great workout in beautiful scenery with very little traffic. Over the eight-mile stretch from campground to the turnaround at the trail for the Narrows one gains 500 feet in elevation. It is not all uphill. There are some deceptively steep rolling sections. Each up and down 16-mile circuit results in climbing about 700 feet.
Regina left Thursday for Bryce Canyon National Park, then to Grand Canyon and other parts of the Southwest, while I am here for one more day before moving on to Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada for a week. I am looking forward to that.
I did an afternoon of shopping yesterday. Browsing through a number of businesses is actually more accurate.
I stopped at a store called Tribal Arts, with a variety of Native American artistic creations to begin. They had lots of nice turquoise and other jewelry. There were more earrings, necklaces, and bracelets than there were rings. There were more other types of creations than there was jewelry. Or maybe I just noticed them more. There were many Kachina dolls. I have never seen such a variety. Each doll had a little card detailing its name and purpose, which the shop owner told me about. I could not read them, because they were all displayed on a wall about four feet behind a counter. There were a great deal of pottery items. Bowls and other types of round creations. There were many stone carvings of animals, from smallish fetishes to larger ones. There were lizards, snakes, turtles, rabbits, coyotes, owls, horses, bears, goats, sheep, beavers, and more. There were plenty of rugs and wall coverings as well as paintings as well.
Next was Zion Prospector, which is first and foremost a rock shop. They have a variety of natural state rocks and minerals available by the pound. They have a variety of carved and shaped rocks and minerals, too. I talked with the man working at the store and he said it is a lot to keep up on. There is so much in terms the origin, crystal structure, formation, chemical processes, colors, luminosity, hardness, etc. for each specie. After that, there is the creative and artistic side of the business.
Worthington Gallery made a great impression on me. It had some very unique items. There were some bells, no wait, let’s call them gongs. I’m not sure what to call them, but they ring. Some were quite large, standing nearly six feet tall. Others where around a foot tall. They were diverse pieces, composed mostly of metal and rock, but there were additional materials. They ranged in cost from a couple thousand to nearly $10K. That’s a lot of bell.
There was a diversity of paintings. I am amazed at the variety of painting styles, how one moves the brush to create affect and effect. The use of colors, some that seem to portray those of the landscape accurately while others modify it to a degree, sometimes a great deal. Paintings range from the mid $500s in a few cases to $6000 in others.
A few doors up the road is the David West Gallery. He is a photographer who creates his print on metal. He has been doing this for many years. The gallery has over a hundred photographs in a variety of sizes. The nature of this type of print makes the photos look as if they have a light shining on them from behind the photo.
Only one thing negative that happened here: I ran out of chocolate! I remedy that on my drive to Valley of Fire!
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