Zion and Vegas

This past weekend I went to Las Vegas for one night and then off to Zion Nat'l Park in UT. I did not go alone but was instead accompanied by Meghan Nash, Carolyn Paul, Tommy Morris and Michael Eller.

Our trip began attempting to fit 5 people, bags and camping gear into a Ford Taurus. Now I'll tell you there is quite a bit of trunk room in the ole Taurus, however, not enough. So our leave time of 1:00 was pushed till about 3ish as we had to change cars into Tommy's 4-runner for the trip. That was by far the right choice. So we departed. We only hit a bit of traffic and after a number of rounds of "top 5" and "kiss, kill, marry" we arrived in Las Vegas. We had a good night of just walking around and being hounded by "card people" who freely give you cards of call girls whom you could call and have meaningful deep discussions about life with. I'm sure that was all.

We tried to get dinner at 2 different buffets which actually closed at 10 O'clock and ended up going to a pizza place to grab a few slices to go. Then we discovered that the place must not get much business because they charged for everything. I mean you wanted grated Parmesan on your pizza, charge; you need a plastic spoon, charge; you want a cup for water, charge! What? This is Vegas, a city that never sleeps with cheap good food and where money is as abundant as mosquitoes in a stagnant pond. Oh well.

We decided to call it a night knowing we had a few large hikes set before us the following two days in Zion.

The next morning we took off and after about 2 and a half hours we landed in Zion. It was massive, overwhelming, beautiful and dangerous! We arrived and parked at the camp site, pulled our hiking gear and took off for a 10-mile (round trip) hike up to Angel's landing (see flickr images). It was a difficult hike as we climbed 1488 feet from start to finish to an elevation point of 5785 feet. The last third of the trail is about 8-12 feet wide with 1000 foot drop offs on either side. Those with vertigo, a bad heart or feeling depressed need not take that challenge. It was pretty awesome. (picture is missing Carolyn who we thought was going to wait for us...turned out she finished it on her own and met us at the top!)



After returning to camp, eating at a little restaurant on the outskirts of the camp ground and getting some groceries, including s'mores elements, we went to bed. I slept outside just because I never had before and realized in the morning I had slept on top of a fire ant hill. How I was not eaten alive is simply a miracle by God!

The next day we had breakfast on the fire and then were off to the Narrows. It's (as you might assume) a hike that is narrow. The beauty is the river that created these massive walls of rock is still there. You walk in the river (varying depths) while being flanked by 2000-foot rock walls on either side. It is one of the most widely known hikes in all of the National Park system and other-worldly. We went about 5 miles in again with an additional a 2-mile detour. It was an upstream hike from the beginning and then had the water on our side as we headed back out again. (see picture and note people on the bottom right for an idea of scale)



After leaving the Narrows we headed back to camp, read, hung out, napped, ate and slept. The next day we took of for LA again and I showered last night for the first time in 3 days and slept in something that had more than an inch between me and the ground.

All in all it was a great trip with tons of great pictures you can view on the right side or click the link for the Zion SLIDE SHOW.