In order to beat the afternoon heat and the crowds on the trails, we did the unthinkable--we set the alarm clock! True to our plan, we were up at 5 a.m. this morning. We ate a good breakfast, drove the 23 miles in the dark, and were on one of the first shuttles into Zion National Park that morning. It was barely twilight when the bus dropped us off near our trail head for the Angel's Landing hike. It was cool, and Denisa still had her jacket on this morning.
Again, things are a little blurry because it isn't fully light yet. We usually wait to talk to a ranger to plan which hikes we will take at a new location. But in Zion there are some iconic hikes that most hikers have always heard about. Mark is standing on the trail, but still far away from our destination today--the top of Angel's Landing.
We had hiked straight up for thirty minutes before we got to this overlook point. The first sun rays of the day were just hitting the top of the peaks on the other side of the Virgin River.
From another overlook still higher, we could look down on our squiggly path full of some serious switchbacks.
We found that many people end their hike at Scout's Lookout, about an hour and 15 minutes into the trail. This is the point where things get more strenuous and a lot more scary. You can see that we are now on a very narrow strip of mountain with ledges straight down on both sides. Denisa was very glad to see a chain to hang on to during this climb. On the other hand, Mark is only hanging onto the camera, taking way too many of these pictures.
Here's a look at the ridge line that we have to traverse between Scout's Lookout and Angel's Landing. The sign at the bottom warns that since 2004, six people have died on this section. It's a 1.1 mile round trip climb that is over 1,400 feet above the canyon floor.
Almost to the top, we can see the light at the top of the summit. At some places the trail is only 27 inches wide. They warn against hiking this trail when there are high winds, storms or ice. We were glad to have blue skies and none of those other weather options today. We were also glad to be some of the first people on the trail. That means there aren't a lot of people coming down from the summit. There isn't a lot of room to meet another hiker going the opposite direction in this section.
Finally to the top, it's time to take pictures with us above the surrounding mountain tops. The sun is lighting up the mountains around us now, and we can see the canyon floor and Virgin River far below.
This peak got its name because it was so tall only the angels could
land here. But today, the Engelmans have landed here as well!
Some hardy trees still manage to survive on the top of this ridge. It's amazing to see how their roots are clinging to the top of that rocky summit. Even though it felt quite safe to be sitting among those roots at the time, this picture shows that it might have been a little close to the edge.
We also must include the picture taken straight down over the ledge. You can be assured that Mark stretched out over the edge to take that one--not Denisa. That would be the Big Bend shuttle stop, with two of those large shuttle buses far below.
Behind Mark, you can see the sheer rock face and the tiny ridge that we walked on from a different angle now.
We didn't stay at the summit long because we wanted to get down off the narrowest sections before the hiking crowds woke up. Standing on a narrow ledge, waiting for other hikers to clear a section before we could continue would make this hike more tedious and more dangerous.
The trip down seems a little scarier, because you can see what would happen if you stumbled down these steps. Denisa was happy to have that chain to hold onto during the narrowest sections. It would feel a little like a "high-wire-tight-rope-walk-on-a-stair-master" without it. There was enough of a breeze to make us realize how tricky this could be in a gale.
But on the wider section it was all right to do the classic lean over the canyon wall.
This is the view of the straight down cliff face that they picture on the warning posters at the beginning of the trail. We were surprised at the number of people that have every intention of hiking to the top, but once they see the cliff face and the chains and the narrow trail, decided that Scout's Lookout is a good place to stop.
Denisa is talking to two of those people when we got back to Scout's Landing. They were trying to get more information about hiking further, and counseling to see if they should continue. On the other hand, Mark is scrambling up the loose rock to the summit there on the landing. He took this picture from his perch on the top of that area.
It's close to 10:00 now, and we are so glad to be off the section with the chains. We took this picture of the steady stream of hikers just above Scout's Lookout climbing both up and down now. They haven't gotten to the ridge yet and the area is already very congested. We didn't like that alarm going off at 5:00 this morning, but we are so glad that it did now. We wouldn't want to be hiking up directly behind someone, and waiting for those coming down.
About 30 minutes down from the top now, we are on the section of the hike called, "Walter's Wiggles." Named after the first manager of Zion Park, it is a set of 21 switchbacks that makes the climb to Angel's Landing possible. One of the few trail sections on the list of national historic places, Walter's Wiggles will test your leg muscles going both up and down.
Now back at the bottom, Mark is standing on a rock far below the summit of Angel's Landing. It's only 10:30, but we made our strenuous hike for the day. We are content to ride the shuttle back to the car, and head home for a nap. It was a great day for one of the hikes we have dreamed about for a very long time.
We left Kanarraville, Utah, and headed to our campground reservations in Hurricane. Months ago when we decided we wanted to visit Zion National Park, we started looking for a campground in the area. We had hoped to stay inside the national park at Watchman campground, but learned our lesson that those spots are booked months in advance. We have also found that the campgrounds in the small towns closest to the national parks charge about double of what a comparable space should be. So we found a very nice campground 25 miles away in Hurricane, Utah. Even 25 miles away, and even traveling after Labor Day, and even getting the reduced weekly rate, this is the most expensive campground of the last 8 months. But we are happy to be here with the luxury of spending a full week in a beautiful area!
As soon as we got the motor home settled into Willow Wind Campground in Hurricane, we headed to Zion National Park for a reconnaissance mission to check out the lay of the land. Arriving in the afternoon, we knew that all the parking places inside the park would be full. So we parked on the edge of Springdale, Utah, and waited for the next shuttle bus to drive us the last few miles into the park. The scenery in Springdale is obviously very scenic before we even got into Zion.
Once in the park, we sprung off our Springdale shuttle, and got on the national park shuttle at the visitor's center. We would immediately see some of the beautiful peaks that Zion is famous for. This is the view from the first shuttle stop at the Natural History Museum.
We wanted a short hike this afternoon, and the Upper and Lower Emerald Pools trail was recommended. It's relatively flat, short and easy. That means that it is the recommended hike for the majority of visitors. It's been a long time since we have been on a trail that was so congested that our main view was the back of the person in front of us. It was hard to pass slow groups because a constant stream of visitors were coming from the opposite direction.
The highlight of the trail is the Emerald Falls, but it was impossible to get a picture with the crowds gathered there. This was our picture from afar, with Denisa in the bottom right corner. The other people in the picture are some of the 41,000 tourists visiting the national park with us that day. We're pretty sure that 40,000 of them were on the Emerald Pools trail in the afternoon.
We did take the longer and more difficult loop trail back to the shuttle stop, and the crowds dwindled as the trail got harder. Most people were having a hard time with the incline up to the upper pools. This wasn't a problem for us, as we were hiking at 11,000 feet of elevation yesterday. Zion is around 4,000 feet, and so it feels like we are walking in an oxygen chamber today. This is one of the views from the end of the trail, of a peak that is probably a mile away from our camera.
It is almost impossible to capture the glorious size of these peaks all around us. So in the following picture Mark has circled one of the shuttle buses closer to the mountain. These are buses with another trailer behind, and they hold around 80 passengers. This is a big bus, but beside the mountain it is so tiny that we had to circle it in red just to be seen.
We stayed in the park until evening, and we have a plan now for our visit. It will include getting to the park very early before the crowds and high temperatures, and we will be hiking the most difficult trails. We're looking forward to those hikes in the week to come!
The weatherman has been predicting rain for a couple of the days we will be in the area. So it seemed the perfect time to schedule an oil change at the Honda dealership in the nearby city of St. George. While we sat in the dealership's customer waiting room, we had a grand conversation with a local resident that gave us lots of advice on things to do in the area. Before the oil was changed, she gave us a discount code for tickets to the play that evening. Suddenly our oil change turned into an all-day visit!
What's Denisa doing during this all-day visit? It appears she is talking on the phone while being
attacked by a grizzly while a polar bear looks on. But she certainly looks happy about this grizzly situation. Actually, she is intently
listening to an audiophone describing the animals in this exhibit at a museum in St. George.
We had free tickets (compliments of our RV park) to the Rosenbruch World Wildlife Museum in St. George. The Rosenbruch family spent a considerable part of their lives and fortune to hunt wild game all over the world. They then spent the rest of their fortune to have them stuffed and put into a huge museum in Utah. The picture below includes the animals in just part of just one of the floors of the museum.
Since we recently spent time on safari at Kruger National Park, seeing part the Africa exhibit was especially interesting to us.
The Rosenbruch family also collected insects. There were the lovely butterflies, as well as the huge beetles that look like something out of a nightmare.
We spent part of the day shopping and eating in St. George, doing our part to pump up the local economy. Then we headed northwest out of town towards Snow Canyon State Park. We thought about camping here, as it was described as the most beautiful state park in the very beautiful state of Utah. Mark is standing on top of one of the unusual red hills that looks like it should be in a commercial for wrinkle cream.
On top of that wrinkly red hill we spotted a few perfectly round, marble-sized red rocks. Then we spotted a few more . . . and another large group . . . and then we walked over the summit and found thousands of these round rocks. We're not sure what geological phenomenon caused this, but we'll chalk it up to another of God's wonders.
The state park was a mix of wrinkly red hills, majestic white mountains, black lava, and every combination between. It was a beautiful place to wander this afternoon.
As we left the state park, a dramatic cloud was moving into the area. We hoped that this didn't interrupt the outdoor performance we were attending this evening!
Just a few miles from the state park is Tuacahn Amphitheater. Denisa had been listening to television commercials for this outdoor theater since she was sitting alone in Salt Lake City.
We had heard about their reputation for first-rate Broadway productions for a month, and we were lucky to snag some seats in the back section for a good price on a Tuesday evening.
This theatre plays to capacity crowds from May to October, every day of the week during all the months that will allow good outdoor temperatures. There were almost 2,000 people from all over the surrounding states here with us on a Tuesday night. Tonight's performance was a Disney production. We were told that Disney is very particular about allowing theatres to produce their copyrighted musicals, another evidence of the quality of this show. We weren't disappointed--it was great! Sorry, but no pictures were allowed during the performance.
We also don't want to give away any secrets, but the two lead parts were played by top-notch Broadway stars. This picture is obviously not of those two stars.
We left home this morning for an oil change, and got back to the motor home a little before midnight. We never know what will happen in the course of a day on the road. But we do know that St. George is more fun than the average oil change.
We have found that it is hard to find special things to do to celebrate special occasions. Because we are blessed to get to hike in some of this country's most beautiful places on a daily basis, it's hard to top that. Years ago, we decided that it was up to the person celebrating a birthday to plan their special day. So Denisa's plan started with eating coconut cream pie for breakfast. Once that was accomplished, we headed to town for church. Then her next birthday stop was visiting Cedar Breaks National Monument. We didn't have much of a phone signal inside the park, so it was surprising that Denisa got a phone call at one of the viewpoints in the park. It was fun to get birthday greetings looking over the beautiful canyon!
Speaking of birthdays and old things, Cedar Breaks National Monument is home to many bristle cone pines--which are the oldest living things on earth. They can live for 5,000 years and thrive in the harshest conditions where few other things can survive. This big old tree looks dead, but had a couple branches in the back that were still alive.
Bristlecone pines have a unique-shaped foliage. They could also be named "baby bottle brush pines" because they are shaped just like the brushes we used to clean those bottles. We think that might also show Denisa's age.
Speaking of tree-fun, along the four-mile Ramparts trail that we were hiking we found a tree that was just begging for a photo. It had a perfectly shaped and placed face hole. Since it was Denisa's birthday, Mark obliged with posing for the picture.
We decided that looking into Cedar Breaks national monument was much like looking into a miniature Bryce Canyon. It's a beautiful place to be on a birthday!
Denisa had planned this trip to Cedar Breaks, but she got an unexpected gift. Driving into the mountains to the national monument took us to over 10,000 feet in elevation. At this elevation, the leaves have turned into their glorious fall shades. We hiked among the aspens, marveling at their color.
Since we have never lived in aspen country during the fall, we have never seen them turn their characteristic gold color before. So we were surprised to see aspen that also had touches of orange to them.
We continued up highway 143 to Brian's Head, another Utah ski resort town. Here we found the most beautiful fall foliage we have ever seen in our lives. Check out the gold and orange aspen trees!
The mountain tops were beautifully golden against the blue sky today.
Next stop on this birthday trip is Cedar City for a yummy meal. Then to work off those calories, we headed to the campus of Southern Utah University. Having retired after working on a college campus for almost 30 years, we love visiting universities all over the country now. With mature trees shading the entire campus, there are also hanging baskets planted with shade plants.
Famous for a Shakespeare Festival that offers live productions all summer, they even have an open-air Shakespearean Theater on campus.
We also had a map of the sculptures on campus, so we got some more exercise hunting them down. Denisa is again getting more birthday phone calls while checking out the massive sculpture on the founding of the university.
Meanwhile, Mark is spending some quality time with Albert Einstein in the campus sculpture garden. Two great minds think alike, and Mark let Albert borrow his cap to keep the sun out of his eyes.
It was a great birthday, and proof that we didn't have to break the bank to have a special time. Hiking through Cedar Breaks--free (with our annual national park pass); walking through the SUU campus--free; being surprised with amazing fall foliage--priceless!
We were impressed with this area of Utah, and we really liked Cedar City. We have a special place in our hearts for a nice college town. On another day, we visited the Cedar City farmer's market and changed our fruit strategy from peaches to apples. We'll enjoy this box of Utah apples on down the road. We see an apple crisp in our future, and there's plenty to share with our RV neighbors!
Another day we used our Utah state park pass to visit the Frontier Homestead Museum. We don't often visit museums, but having that state pass has enticed us to go to several in Utah. This was a fun place with lots of activities for children (or adults that like to do child-like things). There was a large collection of horse-drawn vehicles that included original wagons, surreys, and carriages. Mark's Dad would be glad their collection even included a Clarence carriage--the Rolls Royce of horse-drawn vehicles. They also had a reproduction stagecoach for photo opportunities.
There were log cabins, a school house, and a sawmill. Just in case any of the museum visitors were naughty, there was also the original Cedar City jail. Denisa thought Mark made a very good-looking inmate.
Out front, there was a retired steam shovel. New in 1936, it is capable of lifting 12,000 pounds of rock per scoop. That would even be enough to lift Denisa sitting in the scoop.
But our favorite part of the museum was this building. Any ideas what it might be?
If you guessed a sheep shearing barn, you would be correct. There were videos inside that explained the process and showed that a sheep could be completely sheared in just two minutes. These mountain sides are home to large herds of sheep during the summer.
They are also home to a bike path that stretches from one end of Cedar Ridge to the other. It goes by the soccer fields on the north side . . .
and up to the mountains in the south. The key word here is "up." After stopping to walk her bike up too many inclines, Denisa thought it was time to turn around and coast back to the car. We like a bike path that ends in a no-pedaling ride home, and we liked Cedar City a lot!
Now back at the bottom, Mark is standing on a rock far below the summit of Angel's Landing. It's only 10:30, but we made our strenuous hike for the day. We are content to ride the shuttle back to the car, and head home for a nap. It was a great day for one of the hikes we have dreamed about for a very long time.
