Day 3: June 15, 2011

7:15 AM Thursday June 16, 2011

Base of Zion National Park

70 Degrees F

Chilly! And dry as a beast. I’m writing bits of “Day 2, June 14” and “Day 3, June 15” of the G.A.R. here on “Day 4, June 16”. We were kind of pooped of writing yesterday. Also, we had a really short drive to Zion from our campsite at Sand Hollow State Park and had no time to jot down any adventures. Sand Hollow (our campsite at Day 2) was not where we planned to stay, but it would have to do. Apparently, Zion is so popular that you can make reservations for campsites 6 months in advance and the first come first serve extra sites are filled immediately in the morning. So, I checked out google maps on my phone, found a patch of green—which usually means national/state park, and chose it.

I am so glad I did! It was an 18 mile extra drive into Sand Hollow—when we got there, it felt as if we were staying in the base of the Valley of Fire. There was a small lake surrounded by reed marshes and beaches of incredibly fine rusty pink sand. When we got down right next to the water, it really looked like Dune or Ancient Egypt—or what I imagine of Ancient Egypt—with Moses just trotting around and stuff. Tons of ATVers traverse the dunes—at first we THOUGHT the Matrix was going to be just fine. I wanted Teddy to go to the well-traveled parts of the sand, but he wanted to go to the really secluded part of the primitive campsite. Yeah, we got about 10 feet when the Matrix got stuck in the sand. It’s the most gut-sinking feeling in the world to feel the car’s wheels spinning backward and not going anywhere. Teddy was trying to rock the car back and forth as he would in snow, but I said screw it and got out of the car to direct. Basically, all he had to do was back up. The end.

When we woke up in the morning, there were tons of little animal tracks all around where we slept, which was a little eerie. They crawled over our footprints, so we know they were there when we were sleeping. The creepiest was this really long track that looked like a bicycle tire. But it tread really lightly, and went all these weird directions (under our car and right next to our tent for instance) so we knew it was an insect or a snake. We don’t think it was a snake because it was in such a straight line. Teddy thinks it’s a millipede, and I’m trying to research tracks online to identify it. GROSS.

7:40 am

Holy Mount Zion

68 degrees F

On the drive to Zion, we practically had to slam on our brakes because we saw a fake old mining town thing slash animal petting zoo slash Indian trading post. It was the best. We walked in and got completely taken by the charm of the sales lady and made some big purchases. I bought the item I’ve been seeking for a really long time: a huge Indian turquoise cuff. I saw it in the case and knew it was the one. Good price point, too. Made by Zuni Indians. Teddy got jealous of my excitement and caught the retail fever. He bought a pocket knife with a sterling silver Big Horn Sheep inlay in the wooden handle. We have had this running joke about Big Horn Sheep/Rams the whole trip—first of all I keep calling them Big Horn Lambs. Also, they’re cute and we’ve been trying to spot them in vain. Teddy kept losing the keys to the car, because it is literally one key on one key ring stashed in his mesh shorts. Perfect for losing. His punishment was that he had to buy a ridiculous, corny key chain. He bought a carved wooden buffalo which looks nothing like a buffalo but is so cute.

After the purchases, we bought 3 carrots for a dollar and went out to the petting zoo. We were just going to take pictures in the fake ghost town shops at first, but then this huge white rooster comes screaming around the corner at me. He’s just running at me, and I was afraid that I stepped on his territory and he was going to bite me, but when he got to me, he just stood there and waited. I put the carrot next to him and he started pecking madly at it. I fed some lovely alpaca and some really pretty deer too, but still the rooster would not leave me alone. Just another example of me being a pied piper of animals.

7:55 am

Driving Through Zion to Bryce

66 Degrees F

Zion is one of the most breathtaking places we’ve ever seen. Teddy had seen it before, apparently, but he says he appreciates it so much more now. These massive peaks stretch straight up into the sky in tons of different colors created by millions of years of erosion, water and mineral deposits. It’s really hard to see the scale of these formations from our pictures, but I hope you can get an idea. You are such a tiny speck at the base of massive, often completely vertical cliffs. Impossible trees emerge from the tiniest crevices at the tip of the mountains.

Actually, we can see how the “Ancient Mormons” of the 1910s thought this was part of the Promised Land. “Zion” is a Hebrew word that they appropriated meaning “place of sanctuary”. Knowing what I know about the LDS (which actually is a lot), I kind of cracked up at all the imagery and vocabulary they use all over the park. “Mount Moroni”, “Kolob Canyons”, “The Court of the Patriarchs”, “The Altar of Sacrifice”, “The Great White Temple”, “Polygamy Point”…well, Teddy made up that last one… But still, it’s all very heavy-handedly Mormon.

Regardless, it’s just unbelievable. You’re not allowed to drive up the “Scenic Drive”, instead you have to take a shuttle bus—it was apparently so crowded with cars and tourists in the past that they had to do something. We stopped at the Zion Lodge and had lunch at The Red Rock Grill (really, everything is a “Grill” up here). I led the 4 mile (round trip), really steep hike up to the Emerald Pools. It was so, so hot but really worth it to make it the relaxing natural pond. There are streams and rivers coursing through the sandstone mountains—water seeps into the rock during the snowy/rainy seasons. The rocks from above have a pretty intense “trickle” of water that creates the pools. All around us on the hike were spectacular cliffs and peaks.

Afterwards, we took a second, easier flat hike around the Virgin River. We saw so many lovely creatures on this hike. 3 or 4 deer and a baby buck, just getting his antlers. It was adorable how one antler was coming in faster than the other—he was like an awkward teenager J . We saw a couple of neat caterpillars, a bunch of chickawallas (or some kind of desert lizard), and a big fat wild turkey. The best was the ground squirrels. They were so ridiculously cute. One of them followed us for 10 minutes. I sat down and it jumped up right next to me and started sniffing my shorts. I named him Buddykins and he was precious. Check out the pic down below of Buddykins following Teddy.

I got a little scared, though because there are these big strange signs all over Zion that say “Don’t feed the animals” with a picture of someone’s hand with a huge gash and a bunch of stitches. I wasn’t planning on feeding the little angels, at all, but I didn’t want to get too close either. My favorite sign, however, was “Don’t feed the animals: $100 fine. Report Violators”. Report Violators? Really? I’m just going to give a little nudge and a wink and imply the connection between the self-policing aspect of a certain aforementioned society…just saying.

Teddy and I decided to take off our shoes an step into the river. I wanted some pictures where I looked Pocahontas and stuff. So we did that and I sang “Just Around the Riverbend”, of course. The water was SO COLD! I couldn’t believe it, considering it was like 90 degrees outside and didn’t feel that bad at first. Then after a while, our feet started to ache that ice-water ache. It was probably 30 or 40 degrees. Also, we joined the crew of people creating little stone stacks in the river. See pics.