We woke up super early, about four in the morning (in truth, I didn’t sleep — so much I had to do to prep for the trip particularly the blog / photography end of things). Michelle’s father drove us to the airport well in advance of our 7:10a flight and we managed to get breakfast at one of the food places there. It was serviceable, scrambled eggs and bacon and some potatoes. Took off on time and while I managed to get some sleep (an hour or so) on the plane I spent most of the ride awake reading up on the trip in a travel book I picked up on Saturday. It was very useful, I’m already shuffling around a few things (the hotel nights are fixed, though, so not much is changing — mainly skipping the Chaco Culture in favor of something else in the Santa Fe / Albuquerque area and adding a Spanish mission near Tucson). Had a light snack of cookies on the plane along with a little bit of apple juice and water, Michelle had some ginger ale. The kids pretty much slept through the entire trip.
Landed in Las Vegas about 8am their time to pretty comfortable temperatures — low 80s. It was raining a little bit, however, if you can believe it. Seems like nothing but rain lately! Got our luggage just fine but then discovered at the Budget rental place that the cars they rent aren’t allowed outside of the states of California, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. Which is a problem since we intend to go to Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas as well as Nevada, Utah, and Arizona. It’s our fault, it was in the fine print — I guess we just never figured there’d be a restriction like that. We knew that rentals aren’t to go to Mexico, for instance, but New Mexico? It looked like we may be able to do it for an additional fee from looking at the fine print, but the counter agent said the only way to do it would be two one-way rentals, one to say New Mexico and another back to Las Vegas. That didn’t sound great, and he helpfully took us to sister company Avis (which doesn’t have state restrictions) but they didn’t have any big enough rentals for us and our luggage. No luck with National or Alamo either. Enterprise, however, was able to hook us up. It was a little more (great…) but we weren’t in a position to shop around. The rental was a little small (a Ford Edge) but the agent surmised that and upgraded us to an Explorer which is much, much better leg room-wise.
So, that finally sorted relatively well (hey, at least we had a car…), we headed out of Las Vegas. We drove by the strip and saw many of the casinos as well as some really cool sculptures of horses and bighorn sheep by the side of the highway. The rocks on the side of the road were also organized into patterns like fighter planes and the like which was really cool. Las Vegas ended pretty quickly and we still hadn’t gotten any lunch, water, or snacks for the trip. We took a quick stop outside of town at a gas station / Subway and had some subs and picked up some snacks and two cases of water for the coming days.
New York New York Casino, Las Vegas
The terrain was very mountainous with rock layers of different colors that had gone through some pretty drastic uplifting — like a 45 degree tilt. Little scrub bushes clung to the really dry soil though we did come upon some stands of little yucca trees. In short order we were driving across the extreme northwest corner of Arizona — a new state for everyone but me. The interstate, I-15, followed the Virgin river as it cut a path to the south towards the Colorado, carving a steep canyon over millions of years. At some points the interstate was actually built directly above the river (on a bridge) as the canyon was so narrow, the sides towering hundreds of feet above.
Nevada scrub desert
Uplifted rocks, Arizona
Small cut by the Virgin River, Arizona
Finally we arrived in southern Utah near St. George. Here the land flattened out a bit and there was a bit of farming. Mesas were still all about but oddly it did not appear that any uplifting had happened in the past. The layers were yellow, red, gray, brown, black — you name it. Gorgeous. I don’t know if I’d ever get tired of this kind of scenery though I’m sure I’d miss trees eventually. We left I-15 and followed route 9 a bit, going through a few small communities including one called Hurricane and another called La Verkin that had an ‘H’ and a ‘L’ carved on the mountains surrounding the towns, respectively. Crazy tradition that, saw it on our 2010 and 2012 trips out West as well.
Layered rock with no uplifting, Utah
We finally came to a down called Springdale that sits right at the entrance to Zion National Park. The town had some bed and breakfasts and many stores selling yard art and “Indian” crafts (I’m doubting they were authentic). We could see the canyon walls that define Zion National Park already starting to narrow around the Virgin river as we headed to the ranger station. We picked up a $80 pass good for any site for the next year — it will definitely pay for itself since we’ll be visiting about ten on this trip and each is about $25 to visit (for a week) individually. As we were staying at the Zion Lodge in the park we also received a red permit that allowed us to drive into the park rather than having to park outside and take a shuttle bus in. Yay!
Entrance to Zion National Park, Utah
Zion National Park, Utah
Zion NP shuttle bus
Zion NP
Checked into our cabin at Zion Lodge, #533, about 3p. It’s a bit basic (no TV and a disturbing lack of electrical outlets that makes charging all of our stuff hard, including the laptop I blog with) but nice enough. Two double beds and a bath with a separate sink area as well. A small front porch with a log bench with a wonderful view of the east wall of the canyon. Made dinner reservations for 8p at the lodge and rested a tiny bit. Grabbed some water, put on some sunscreen and our goofy Tilly hats, and boarded the shuttle bus to further into the canyon (the red permit only allowed us to go as far as the lodge). The bus stopped at several stops with beautiful scenery and interesting names like “The Grotto”, “Weeping Rock”, and “Big Bend”.
Our cabin at Zion Lodge
Zion Lodge
We stayed on until the end, a stop called “Temple of Sinawava”, and took the moderately easy Riverside Walk. It was mostly paved with some sandy stretches and pretty nice stone guard rails. It was about 0.6 miles or so each way so just over a mile round trip. At the end of the trail the canyon had narrowed considerably and the river was a lot rockier and had little waterfalls. The canyon walls towered two thousand feet above us and were a mixture of red and brown. Not only were the rocks interesting but in this part of the park there was abundant tree life and even a swampy area (as in some areas the canyon walls were dripping with moisture to feed the swamp). We saw many squirrels that weren’t afraid of humans at all as well as some deer, lizards, a butterfly, and some birds. A fair number of humans as well, sadly. Not unexpected as Zion is a fairly accessible park and is among the most visited in America. Seemed to be a fair amount of French and German being spoken by many of the visitors.
Beginning of Riverside Walk, Zion NP
Virgin River, Zion NP
Riverside Walk, Zion NP
Moisture seeping from Zion canyon walls, nourishing the river bed below
Riverside Walk
Lizard along Riverside Walk
Small rapids on Virgin River
Riverside Walk, Zion NP
Riverside Walk
Riverside Walk
Cactus, Riverside Walk
Tree clinging to a rock, Riverside Walk, Zion NP
Riverside Walk, Zion NP
Arrived back at the lodge just before 7p. A storm had appeared to be brewing for hours and we finally started hearing thunder. Though we would not get the storm it did force us to relocate to the lodge main hall and wait for 8p and our reservation. The kids played Chess while Michelle and I read. Dinner was good but a bit pricey (National Park lodges are great for holding people hostage to high dinner prices). We all had steak and sides. The bread was a particular hit with the kids. Afterwards we headed back to the room. A herd of deer was chowing down on the grass in front of the lodge, about eight in total (one with antlers) — they had no fear what-so-ever of the humans gathered to watch them.
Evening view from Zion Lodge
I blogged a bit on the porch watching the sun set plunge the canyon wall into darkness then came inside to finish up.
Route for Sunday, July 21st, 2013