BurnedUtahShack1.jpgOver a large swath of central Utah, there had been a fire a couple years before, leaving large areas of dead trees and this burned-out souvenir shop
Elizabeth and I took a spontaneous trip to Utah over Labor Day weekend, and enjoyed our first ever trip to Zion National Park. It was fabulous.
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Over a large swath of central Utah, there had been a
fire a couple years before, leaving large areas of dead
trees and this burned-out souvenir shop
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The owner of this quickie mart was obviously a hunter.
Try a venison burrito?
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We arrived to Zion just in time to catch the last rays
of sun on the canyon walls.
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Here's the hotel where we stayed, surrounded by spectacular
sandstone formations.
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The next morning was lovely and clear, despite warnings
of approaching thunderstorms.
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Next door, there was a little farm with ducks and goats
that drew interest from many visitors.
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We decided to head up to "Angel's Landing" our first
day, which was an ambitious hike but we weren't sure
if we'd have another chance given the forecast.
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The peaks all look so different from different angles,
that I'm not sure which one this is.
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We didn't go up that way.
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Zion was carved by the Virgin River, which doesn't look
nearly as impressive as what it has left behind, especially
in August when the water is low.
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This is part of the trail we came up.
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Here we see the river and the west end of the canyon.
Our hotel is just out of view to the right.
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A sandstone sentinel along the trail.
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I'm amazed how the trees can find purchase on these
cliffs. Sometimes, you see roots crawling halfway down
the slope, looking for water or a place to grab hold.
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You can't tell the scale from this image, but these
holes where about the size of your fist, and I have
no idea how they got there.
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We loved all the striations in the sandstone.
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Walter's Wiggles
This set of switchbacks represented a significant construction
effort on the part of the US Parks Service back in the
30's (I think).
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Walter's Wiggles
The view looking back down.
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One of the residents. The racing stripes were well-earned,
as this little guy could really move!
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A curious squirrel.
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A curious hiker.
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I loved the signs.
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A chain gave us something to hang onto while scrabbling
along the ridge.
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Parts of it were well-worn, along with the rock it brushed
against.
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Nearly at the top, a fellow hiker took our photo for
us.
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This was a prominent ridge just to the east of Angel's
Landing.
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Here's the ridge we had to cross to get to the final
point.
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An HDR image of the climb, which looks worse than it
is.
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My favorite hiker.
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I arrived a bit damp from the climb and the heat. Eliz
looks like she just stepped out of the hotel.
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Cool, huh? Huh?
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The team that beat us to the landing.
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Naturally, I had to take a 360-degree panorama, but
I didn't have a tripod so it's a little sloppy.
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The Virgin River from on high.
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Looks like an awesome place to go snow boarding in Winter,
doesn't it?
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Self-portrait. That's a bus on the road down below.
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Cooling Off
Cooling off in Refrigerator Canyon on the trail back.
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We had a little argument about this hole in the rock,
which was about an inch in diameter. Elizabeth thought
it was natural, and I thought it was left by some man-made
reinforcement that used to be there. We never settled
it, and the debate rages on to this day.
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In the evening, we visited a sort of petting farm in
Sunnydale, where they had longhorn steer, caribou, and
bison.
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This calf on the right was having a high old time, running
like mad to and fro while the adults carried on their
"discussion."
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A caribou Eliz took a fancy to.
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Someone gave E some caribou snacks, which he lapped
up appreciatively, leaving her with a very wet hand.
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The next day, we decided to brave the uncertain weather
and took the shuttle bus to road's end, which was the
trailhead for the "River Walk," an easy paved stroll
along the Virgin.
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A bit posed, perhaps, but cute!
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Near one of the places where water seeps through the
sandstone, creating a year-round spring that the plants
really seem to enjoy.
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We called these trumpet lily's, though they're clearly
something else.
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We called these "the pretty red flowers."
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Another sandstone seep.
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Here we are at the end of the paved trail, where people
continue in water shoes or bare feet (in my case).
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Another squirrel who's not too afraid of people.
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That's Elizabeth's sneaker on the right.
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Someone heading out of the canyon gave Eliz his walking
stick, which was a little bit too big and clumsy for
her, so she left it behind a short while later and managed
just fine without it.
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It was slow going at first, but we gradually got used
to walking over rocks in the rushing water.
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Some of the kids really got into it, so to speak.
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I use this image as one of my desktops.
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Elizabeth taking a couple's photo in the canyon. We
traded favors with them a few minutes later.
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And here we are from the same perspective.
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The Narrows offered many opportunities for HDR photography.
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We were told to seek "higher ground" in the event of
a flash flood. Thankfully, there were all these easy-to-climb
rocks around.
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Here I am kipping on one of them.
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Eliz was very sure-footed.
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This rock was grinning at us.
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I said "Wow!" a lot.
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One of the views that wowed me.
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There's another.
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Well, what would you say?
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The Narrows and why it's called that.
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We were having a good time.
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I almost fell in with my camera a couple of times, but
it was worth the risk.
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I'm guessing the gorge was at least 200 feet high most
places.
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Some of the rocks were polished smooth.
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Others were dug out by stones that settled in spots.
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We were treated to many views like this as we rounded
one bend after another -- we had a terrible tendency
to want to see what was around the next turn, despite
the late hour and concerns about getting back.
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This is on the way back, I think.
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A bend in the river carved this out, and the bolders
strewn all around probably came from just overhead,
a point that Eliz kept making.
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A fellow canyoneer took this cool photo of us.
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On the way out, we passed a group of much better-equipped
Japanese tourists.
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Sunset on the canyon wall.
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The next morning, a goat greeted me outside our back
porch.
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This praying mantis was also lying in wait just by the
rear door.
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The weather looked a bit iffy, so we opted for a local
hike. We needed to get going before noon, anyway, and
were glad we'd made good use of our two full days.
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The Bridge
This is a famous bridge, that is rather difficult to
get to. I took this telephoto shot from across the
canyon, next to the Zion museum.
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A crow landing in a tree, looking like it's landing
on a mountain.
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Someone said that Angel's Landing is the peak on the
upper right, but I couldn't tell for sure.
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Another photographer took this of us near the waterfall
over the Lower Emerald Pools.
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Lots of red steps.
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The trail heading up to Angel's Landing, where we hiked
the first day, must be along this ridge, somewhere.
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It's sedimentary, my dear Watson.
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I thought this was a rubber spider when I first saw
it, because it was so huge and still. The body is easily
the size of my palm, which I was too shy to put in the
photo for scale...
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The stream at one of the Upper Emerald Pools.
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Eliz looking stylish.
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Beauty on the rocks.
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A final image of the Virgin River.
Page created Sept 14 2008 1:33:42p