My Fifth National Park in Utah

After hiking in Bryce Canyon, I decided to drive down to Zion National Park for the night since Zion is much lower in elevation and thus much warmer (a big plus when you live in a tent!).  I had the pleasure of driving through a good portion of Zion at sunset!  I was struck, yet again, by how the setting sun makes the already spectacularly gorgeous scenery of southern Utah even more striking.  I was also stunned to see how different the scenery of Zion was from Bryce Canyon even though the parks are only about 80 miles away from each other.  This is a phenomenon that really astounds me.  Southern Utah has five national parks that are all essentially lined up next to each along the bottom of the state.  It seems hard to believe that there are five separate spots in such rapid succession that are both magnificent enough on their own to be worthy of being set aside as a national park and remarkably different from the other parks nearby to warrant being a separate park.  While this is hard to fathom before you see it for yourself, let me assure you that all these parks are both stunning on their own and easily distinguishable from the other parks!  From my experience, Utah is the most stunningly beautiful and diverse state in the country!  It is truly spectacular!

After a most enjoyable (and warm) night of camping next to the river and getting a tip from a ranger, I headed to the Angel’s Landing trail head.  The trail starts off with a relaxing stroll along the river.  After a short while and a few twists and turns, the trail takes you up to and along a ledge of a canyon.  I especially enjoyed the textured rock along the trail in this section.  (If my travels have taught me anything, it is that I really enjoy rocks and the many diverse forms they come in!)  After this section, the trail becomes a series of steep switchbacks (which must have been a challenge to build).  After the switchbacks, the trail emerges on a ridge of rock with a great view of the canyon and river below!

 The next section of the trail that leads to Angel’s Landing is extremely steep and requires holding onto and pulling yourself up chains during some sections.  There are signs all over warning people that if they have even a hint of a fear of heights they should not continue.  I heard a few people hemming and hawing about whether they wanted to continue.  I kept thinking, “What are you waiting for?!?!  This is going to be incredible!!!”  Then I realized that given the same group of people and the prospect of going snorkeling, they would probably waste no time in strapping on the gear and jumping in the water, while I stood on the beach debating if the reward of the experience would be worth having to see the terrifying creatures I was sharing the water with.  After that realization, I was very glad that I have fallen in love with deserts, mountains, and canyons, where I will very seldom have to face my very bizarre, yet real fear of fish!  But I digress.   I continued up the trail that wound itself along (at times, the very edge) of a chunk of rock.  After snaking my way to the top, I had a wonderful view made all the better by the rush of endorphins produced by the semi-treacherous hike up!   The fantastic 360 degree view of the canyon gave me a chance to assess and enjoy the type of beauty that Zion has to offer.  From my assessment, Zion seems to be the most “traditionally” naturally beautiful.  What I mean by that is, that while there are tons of spots in the park that take your breath away, what you see doesn’t make you question if what you are seeing is real (like a gigantic and delicate free standing arch or a strange hoodoo does).

After hiking back down from Angel’s Landing, I headed to the tail along the Virgin River.  The trail leads you to the jumping off point to hike the Narrows (a “trail” that consists of hiking in the river through the slot canyon!).  It was too cold to hike the Narrows without a wetsuit, so I didn’t pursue that option (but I will in the future!!! . . .how amazing does that experience sound!?!?), but I very much enjoyed strolling along the river and peering as far as I could into the slot canyon from the safety of the beach.  Canyons of all types have captured my heart, imagination, and sense of adventure lately.  I must say though, there is something especially intriguing about slot canyons!  The idea that it’s such a narrow space that it just looks like a slit in the earth from the top and the only way to see the spectacular beauty held within that crack is to hike into and through it is extremely captivating to me!

After having a snack on a rock in the river and dreaming about the journey along the narrow canyon, I headed to the Emerald Pools.  I hiked a fairly short and easy loop trail to see a couple of the pools.  The pools are little ponds of water that are created by the springs and run off from snow and rain at higher elevations.  The small waterfalls that supply the pools with their water were as beautiful as the small, green ponds were.  They were extremely peaceful spots!  The sound of running/moving water is always relaxing, and the experience in just that much more intense when you get to hear and witness that phenomenon when you are in the desert! 

While I had plans to do more adventuring in Zion, I woke up to a tent covered in frost and snow and a storm that was still going strong at higher elevation (where I wanted to my adventuring), so I decided to move on, but made a mental note that I had lots more to explore in Zion!     

Utah Just Keeps Getting More Amazing!!!

After my Moab farming adventure ended, I headed out to explore the rest of southern Utah.  I drove through Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  It is rugged, wild and stunning!  It was one of last places in the continental United Sates to be mapped and the vast majority remains remote and undeveloped.  (I would very much like to explore the canyons in this area and see the stunning beauty hidden in the cracks in the earth!  That being said, I’m hoping the next good friend I make has extensive canyoneering skills. . .should you know someone with these skills, send them my way!)

I continued on to Bryce Canyon National Park.  I got some quick advice about good hikes at the visitor center, then headed straight for the trails.  Just when I thought that Utah couldn’t get any more fantastically beautiful, I started hiking past the bright orange hoodoos of Bryce Canyon!  These rock formations are unlike any others I have seen.  They tend to be thin and stick straight up towards the sky. Unlike the rock formations in the Needles section of Canyonlands, these rock pinnacles seem to be a more sculptured.  It’s easy to look at the hoodoos and see forms that are familiar (just as you can gaze at clouds and see dogs or ice cream sundaes).  In fact, there is one section called the Queen’s Garden.  It looks so much like a magical palace and surrounding courtyard, that there was really no need to build Disneyland!   Just add a costumed Cinderella and the effect would be complete! 

I hiked a figure eight shaped loop through the canyon.  It was fantastic to get to start out above the hoodoos, hike down through them, walk along the canyon floor with them towering over me, and getting up  on a ridge that allowed an up close view of some and a bird’s eye view of others.  I was amazed by just how varied the rock formations were in the relatively small area that I covered!  The hoodoos at the beginning of the hike were bright orange, the formations in the Queen’s Garden had a lot of light pink and white, and windows section had a combination of white and orange.  I had the added bonus of getting to see many of these formations frosted with a layer of snow!  That fact made for some interesting hiking though.  Since I got there at the transition between winter and spring, the snow was in the process of melting, but had not completely melted yet.  This meant that half of the hike was spent hiking in a very wet mud that was the consistency of pudding and the other half hiking through snow that occasionally gave away beneath me and plugged me kneed deep into snow.  It certainly made an already captivating hike all that much more interesting!    

Bidding Farewell to Moab

On my last day of adventuring in Moab, I decided to go back to the Hidden Valley trail and take it all the way to the Moab Rim trail.  The first stretch of the trail goes straight up.  Then, it levels off and opens up to a “valley”.  At the far end of the valley part, the trail opens up to a fantastic view of mesas on three sides of you!  It was a particularly gorgeous day, so I found a perfect ledge and sprawled out to enjoy the view for a while.    

After my rest hour, I continued on the trail to the rim of the valley.  The view was amazing!  I was surprised by how populated Moab appeared from above!  While a population of 5,000 doesn’t sound or feel like a lot of people, when you get a bird’s eye view of the evidence of 5,000 humans all crowded together in a relatively close space, it suddenly seems like a huge population.   This is especially true when the majority of the rest of the landscape around you is almost entirely devoid of human inhabitants!  After getting over the shock of just how bustling this lovely little town is, I took quite a while to relax and gaze at the town and the astonishingly magnificent vistas surrounding it.  It was the perfect way to say farewell to Moab.

When I was finished hiking, I had some extra time before I needed to be back on the farm, so I decided to drive on the road that follows the Colorado River.  I had been down a portion of the road before to get to a trail head, but this time, the drive was the whole event, so I was able to truly enjoy just how amazingly beautiful the sights were!  I continued to drive up into the mountains for a while (until I was passed by five enormous snow moving machines, which I took as an indication that my little car probably would fair too well, if I continued too much further).  There is just something about the combination of mountains, rivers, and strikingly strange rock formations that is totally magical to me!  As I worked my way back towards town, I stopped to stroll next to the Colorado River, which really is a remarkably beautiful and powerful river!  I took a moment to wade the frigid water for a bit, and then I headed back to the farm to prepare for my next adventures.