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| Even at 9 AM and despite the 100 degree heat, there was still quite a long queue to take a photograph in front of the sign with Las Vegas Strip in the background. |
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| We didn't want to wait, so we just told The Kids to stand off to the side for the picture. You can kind of see the strip on the left. |
Afterwards, we drove to Orchids Garden restaurant for Dim Sum. Although The Wife is not Cantonese, she makes every effort to try Dim Sum whenever we go to a city with a decent Chinese population. The food was indeed good and worth the stop.
Since there were a plethora of Asian eateries in that vicinity, we stopped at a couple of other locations to get some bubble tea, dirt cheap Vietnamese sandwiches, and Chinese baked goods.
Our next stop would be Zion National Park, a 3 hour journey across the state line into Southwest Utah. American Indians have been living in the Zion area for thousands of years. Originally, the park was named the Mukuntuweap National Monument, based off an indigenous name. However, in the 19th century the Mormons settled the region in force and gave the area Biblical names. Eventually, the park service changed the name to the Mormon-friendly Zion National Park in the 20th century to give it a broader appeal to tourists.
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| Three prominent sandstone peaks within the park are named the "Three Patriarchs," after Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. |
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| Sacred datura flowers grow abundantly throughout the park. People should avoid eating it as it is poisonous and will cause -2 Perception for 90 seconds. |
The Wife had been there many years ago when she was little and had liked it. My interest in it stemmed from playing the video game Fallout:New Vegas, part of which was set in this area. Yes, I'm a huge dork. Unfortunately, many others were interested in Zion as well, as it is one of the more crowded national parks in the country. The number of visitors had gotten so bad that the park service eventually limited private vehicles from travelling past the visitor center.
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| A very convenient shuttle bus service transports visitors to the different attractions around the park. |
The only exception are the guests staying at Zion Lodge. They can drive their cars up to that point. That's where our reservations would be for the next two nights. Although we had booked our stay many months in advance, the only lodging option within the park was the stand-alone cabins.
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| The cabins were rustic yet serviceable and convenient. |
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| The amenities were basic, with a clean bathroom... |
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| ...and an extra sink with microwave and coffee maker. |
Each cabin had a porch where you could sit and enjoy the outdoors. Unfortunately, the cabins were too close to each other and obstructed the magnificent views. Plus there was an awful stench near our cabin. I believe one of the wild turkeys that roamed the area had relieved itself too close to our unit. Without any television, internet, or even a signal for our cellphones, there wasn't anything else to do but appreciate our natural surroundings.
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| The Wife and The Girl enjoyed the cool afternoon Utah air and the smell of turkey poo. |
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| No workout facilities at the Zion Lodge? No problem. |
Since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to have our dinner (the aforementioned Vietnamese sandwiches) outside at the common area in front of the lodge. There is a large grassy field where people were relaxing, having picnics, or throwing Frisbees and footballs. The cool, afternoon summer air, the ambiance of the surrounding rock formations, and the delicious mystery meat in those banh mi's were enough to make it a perfect meal. To top it off, we were then joined by the evening entertainment--a herd of mule deer. It was obvious that these animals were acclimated to humans. People could approach them up to ten feet away before they batted an eye.
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| At the Zion Lodge, people live in harmony with nature...until someone beans a deer with a Frisbee. |
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| The Girl "feeds" her mystery meat sandwich to a deer. |
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| A deer hug? |
Later that night we attended one of the free ranger talks at the Zion Lodge. There was actually a pretty good turn out of people. Perhaps all the other guests at the lodge had nothing better to do either. The ranger seemed like an interesting person--he was a retired career military serviceman who is now doing something he is passionate about. Unfortunately, the topic about some of the local fauna was a bit dumbed-down for little kids and wan't too interesting. It was a way to kill an hour but we didn't plan to come back for more talks in the future.
*****
August 28, 2017
There are no shortages of things to do in Zion. Visitors can do several hikes that reveal amazing views of the canyon. Adventurous types can rappel and scramble through slot canyons. And those physically fit can even rock climb the cliff faces of the canyon. The park service allows visitors to do all sorts of hazardous activities--they leave the responsibility on the guests to know their own limitations. The only thing they request is that people don't feed the chipmunks.
With only one full day there, we had to be picky with what we wanted to do. The first thing that popped out for me was Angel's Landing, the quintessential Zion Hike. This strenuous 5 mile trek takes visitors up to a high overlook with a full view of Zion Canyon. In order to get there, hikers need to traverse a narrow ledge with drops of 1,000 feet on either side. The park service had placed chains on the ledge to assist hikers. Unfortunately, people still die including a man who fell only a few months before. One of the many complaints are that there are too many people trying to go up and down simultaneously. It took The Wife only a few seconds of looking at the photos of that narrow ledge before shooting down the idea of our family doing that hike. Losing one's life (or even worse--your child's) just to say you did something would be horribly stupid.
The second most popular hike at Zion is The Narrows. This trek follows a wide gorge with canyon walls up to a thousand feet higher. During much of the hike, visitors would need to wade through the Virgin River as it flows through the canyon. Many adventure outfitters in the nearby town of Springdale offer reasonably-priced rentals for specialty equipment including water shoes and neoprene socks. However, we were too cheap to spend money on those things, so we just hiked in our sneakers and used our trekking poles for support.
My biggest concern for this hike would be the weather. If there is any significant rain in the forecast, the river may not be safe to traverse. Even rain miles away upstream can be dangerous. Once the water starts flowing down the river, it has nowhere to go but through the canyon. In a wider canyon like the Narrows, The Wife and I expected that the chance of a dangerous flash flood would be pretty minimal. In other areas of the park, that isn't always the case.
Nevertheless, we did our due diligence. I checked the weather forecast for the surrounding areas, and there was no precipitation expected for the next several days (I couldn't check on the day of the hike as we had no television or internet access in the park). We also checked with a park ranger at the welcome center and he told us that there were no concerns. The national park service also keeps track of the flow rate and will close the hike if the river current is too strong.
Since the Narrows is a popular trek, many guidebooks recommend going in the morning to avoid the huge crowds. We hopped on one of the first shuttle buses at 8 AM that headed deeper into the park. We made a quick stop to visit the "Weeping Rock." This geological formation gets its name from the fact that water continuously drips out from the side of a cliff. This is caused by melting snow or precipitation high on top of the canyon. This water first seeps through the top layers of porous sandstone. However, once it encounters impermeable rock below, the water is forced out creating the "weeping" phenomenon.
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| A constant deluge of water rained down from "Weeping Rock." |
After that quick detour, we took the bus further into the park until we reached the Temple of Sinawava bus stop.
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| We hiked about a mile along the well-paved Riverside Walk that followed the Virgin River. |
From there, a set of stairs descended down to the banks of the river. This would be the start of the Narrows hike. At the beginning, the river was very shallow--just high enough to cover our ankles and submerge our shoes. The water was fairly clear and we could easily see where we were stepping. Although it was summer, the water was still very cold. However, after a couple of minutes of hiking and breaking a sweat, that chilly water felt great. Any concerns we had about the river current were easily quashed. The water was flowing at such a slow rate that there were plenty of small children playing in the water. We even encountered a huge pack of Cub Scouts doing a hike. So much for enjoying the serenity of nature.
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| The constant stream of people at the beginning of the hike meant that we were never alone in The Narrows. However, we also didn't feel like it was too crowded either. |
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| There was no shortage of natural beauty along this hike. This was the biggest waterfall we encountered in The Narrows. |
The smooth rocks in the river bed, were very slippery. Turning one's ankle was a serious concern. We were grateful that we brought along our hiking poles. Most other hikers were wise enough to do the same. Occasionally, we would encounter those who didn't. Some would even use warped pieces of driftwood or small logs to help keep their balance. Our progress was much slower compared to the Riverside Walk. There were some areas of the path where only one person could cross at a time. The Girl struggled to keep up, complaining that her feet were hurting and too cold. It probably also didn't help that I kept stopping to take photographs of the family like a prototypical Japanese tourist.
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| The going was slower once the water got deeper. Since visibility of the river floor was limited at greater depths, we had to be more careful where we stepped. |
Eventually, we encountered areas where we had to walk through waist-deep water. It was pretty fun, but there was some shrinkage from the cold water. In other areas, we would have to walk on wet sand and gravel. We had to make several stops on occasion to remove sand and small rocks from our shoes. Overall the tennis shoes were fine for us. However, I suspect that water shoes would have lessened the problems of debris in our shoes, traction on slippery rocks, and cold, wet feet.
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| The high walls of the canyon loomed over us as we hiked along the river. |
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| The Boy enjoys a brief respite from the cold river water. |
We hiked for about two hours going upstream. I hoped that we would make it to the iconic area called "Wall Street," where the canyon would narrow to just about 20 feet wide. Supposedly, that's where the canyon is most beautiful. But our progress was just so slow that we realized that we had at least another hour to go to get there. Pressing on to get to "Wall Street" would mean at least four more hours of hiking to there and back. The Kids would stage a mini mutiny long before that time were up. Therefore, The Wife and The Kids decided to turn around and head back. I hiked on for another twenty minutes at a much quicker pace, but didn't see any appreciable difference in the canyon scenery. Therefore, I too turned back around and eventually caught up with the rest of the family as they plodded along slowly.
By the time that we had reached the beginning of the trek, I was glad that we had hiked early in the morning. We encountered continuous waves of people just starting their hikes. Some were blasting radios like it were a pool party. So much for enjoying the sounds of nature. I did notice that the water level was no longer at our ankles. It had risen to knee-level in just a few hours. The current was slightly swifter, but it was still easy enough for people of all ages to walk through.
Although I was disappointed that we didn't get farther along, I thought that the hike was very enjoyable. Walking through a river was a unique experience for us as we had only done trail hiking previously. The views of the canyon were beautiful. And most importantly, we didn't run into any unexpected weather-related incidents. That wouldn't be the case the very next day as the Narrows made national news with a mini flash flood, which fortunately didn't lead to any injuries
After making it back to our cabin, we all realized that we were much more tired that we had expected. We decided to eschew our planned hikes to the "Emerald Pools." Instead we headed to the town of Springdale to get lunch. We had a nice relaxing mid afternoon lunch at MeMe's Cafe.
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| The pepper jelly grilled cheese sandwich |
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| Soft corn tacos |
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| BBQ chicken sandwich |
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| Meme's Hawaiian sandwich |
Afterwards, we walked around the small town that mainly catered to the thriving tourist industry. There were mainly boutique arts and crafts stores and many outdoor outfits catering to those with an adventurous spirit. We spent the remainder of the evening relaxing on the grounds of the Zion Lodge, enjoying the lack of electronic entertainment and stress.
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