Zion

After being the first in line for the typical motel breakfast, we loaded our rental car and joined Las Vegas rush hour traffic to get out of town as quickly as possible. It felt rather strange to be listening to an NPR news report of yesterday’s memorial service for the victims of the October mass shooting in Las Vegas, just as we were driving past the MGM Grand on the freeway.

Heading north on I-15, I cursed our rental car for being pretty much the first car I’ve seen in the last 20 years NOT to be equipped with cruise control. As other car makers work on self-driving vehicles, how is it that Hyundai has omitted this rather basic amenity?

All of that waiting practice we got yesterday in the Las Vegas airport came in very handy today, as we  arrived at Zion National Park. We learned to drive endlessly around the Visitor’s Center parking lot before creatively making a parking spot where none was intended to be (in this, we followed the lead of many other drivers). We also got to wait in line for more than an hour for seats on the park shuttle, which advertises “you never have to wait more than 15 minutes.”

We learned that Zion is the third most visited of all the national parks in the U.S. It’s a very accessible park, with lots of short, easy walking trails. The crowded trails were a veritable United Nations: We heard many speaking Spanish (both South American and European accents), German, French, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Greek, various south Asian dialects, and quite a bit of Scandinavian (my ear cannot discern Swedish from Norwegian from Danish). It seemed that the number of international visitors equaled or exceeded U.S. visitors. Spring break in Europe can sometimes be the entire month of April.

Zion canyon is breathtaking. The rock faces are so sheer they look as if they were sliced off with a giant knife. The cliffs rise to as much as 2000 feet, straight up, above the canyon floor. At this time of year there is quite a bit of water from snow melt higher up. The “weeping rocks” were really crying.

With few exceptions, such as guests at the Lodge, private vehicles are not allowed on roads in Zion. A shuttle bus system moves people from one end of the canyon to the other. Unfortunately, the crowds can overwhelm the shuttle system. Waiting in line for the bus can be the larger portion of the experience, and so it was for us, at nearly every stop along the way.

Our three short, easy hikes were a good warmup for the rest of this trip. Our fourth and final hike of the day was a bit more difficult, and undoubtedly the most scenic. We hiked the Canyon Overlook Trail at the eastern edge of the park. It’s not terribly long, but more rugged than the others. It also provided spectacular views all along the way — so much so that the actual overlook, at the end, was something of a let-down. The journey was more than the destination. Near the end, we even saw a couple of big horn sheep grazing near the edge of the rim.

We spent the night in Hurricane, UT, about 30 miles from the park. A Mexican restaurant there was highly recommended. Again, we waited in line. Food and service were entirely average, not at all worth the wait. A quick run to Walmart was necessary to get glue to repair the sole of my hiking boot, that was the excitement for the evening.

Overnight we had a front move through. The wind really howled, but in the morning the sky was crystal clear, even if the air was crisp.