The Savage Traveler: Out West Adventure: Part 2--Zion Days 3 & 4

Sat. May 11: We had the perfect plan for Saturday to see Zion that we're surprised no one had written up or thought of before. After a quick bowl of oatmeal we rode our bikes over to the Visitors Center. We had pre-registered for a Ranger Ride at 9:00. Although two Rangers we checked with said no one had ever asked or done it before, as far as they knew, we managed to put our bikes on the carrier on the front of the one car Shuttle bus we were taking. The Ranger gave a very informative two hour program, stopping to get off the Shuttle at four stops as she explained more about the geology of the Canyon. It was very different information than the recordings on the Shuttles. At one stop, the Ranger had to compete with a very determined male turkey that was displaying himself and gobbling loudly in an attempt to lure a completely disinterested female who turned her back on him and walked away. It was pretty comical! The Ranger used a clock to effectively demonstrate the passage of time in Zion, beginning with midnight 270 million years ago and then going through the day with what the park topography, climate, flora and fauna would be at different times. It was pretty mind-blowing to be told that the Great Wall of China would have been built at 7/10s of a second before the next midnight.

The Shuttle took us up to Sinawava Canyon and the Ranger’s talk was finished. We got our bikes off of the shuttle carrier and then proceeded to bike back down Canyon, which is a breeze! There is the lovely road to bike and the only traffic is from the Shuttles, and they only come every 10 minutes or so. They can’t pass a moving bicycle so the agreement is that bikes pull over and stop to let them go by. But we timed our own stops so that we never had to deal with that. The sky was brilliantly blue and the temperature slowly rose into the seventies and then eighties. The road is almost all downhill, with the only climb being a rather steep hill just up canyon from The Grotto. Before that we stopped to take the Weeping Wall Trail up the east side of the canyon to see the hanging gardens that develop everywhere the wall “weeps” water that siphons through the sandstone above. We ate our lunch along the riverside at Grotto and tarried a bit before getting back on our bikes. From the Court of the Patriarchs on, the road is strictly downhill and we coasted at 22+ mph. We again took the Pa’Rus Trail and relished the quiet and grandeur of the canyon and river. Locking our bikes under an overpass we hiked up to the Human History Museum and watched their 22 minute film on Zion and looked at their displays. Then we continued our ride back to the campsite. It was one of the most pleasant 7½ miles we had ever enjoyed.

At the campsite the temperature was in the mid-eighties and a few clouds came by, sometimes sprinkling a bit like the days before. The campground is extremely quiet, nearly deserted, during the day as people are off exploring. As we sat and read, a small herd of mule deer browsed right in our campsite. While we had a signal, we called Jen to hear about their announcement of the coming baby to the Hansen Family Mothers Day gathering at Coral Gables. Now we are able to share the exciting news, too! After relaxing for a little while, Marv took the empty propane tank off the camper and we had a bit of an ordeal finding a place (10 miles away) to fill it. But having it full makes our plan to do some dry camping in the next few days a little easier. We had a chicken-rice mixture for dinner, began putting some things away in the camper, and then rode our bikes to the Watchman Campground Amphitheater for a program on “Capturing Zion”, a photography presentation by a Ranger from Lansing and Michigan State! Back at the camper we did as much as we could to prepare for an early departure in the morning. Since we hadn't talked to Ken about their announcement I called him and was glad that I did because he was a little miffed we hadn't spoken earlier. Then it was time for bed.

Ranger with her Geologic Clock

Male turkey in full display

Peggy & Marv by the river

Marv biking down the hill out of the canyon

Angel's Landing Trail (there are people walking the ridge out there!!!)

Court of the Patriarchs with Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob

A friendly mule deer

Fri. May 10: First thing in the morning we drove with our coffee to the Park and got a campsite for the next two nights. One drives around, looking for a campsite without a registration tag and puts a new one on the post. We took the first one we found, with two German women who were leaving around 9:30. We returned to the RV Park to eat breakfast, take showers, and take down camp. We were set up in site #22 at South Campground by just before noon and so we made lunch and ate it at the campsite. Then we took a variety of layers of clothing and our water bottles in a backpack and hopped a shuttle up canyon to The Zion Lodge, where we took the 2.2 mile hike to the Emerald Pools. It was fun knowing that we hiked this trail in 1976 when we were here, but we didn’t see much that matched our memories. On our way, it rained hard for a brief time and we were afforded a couple of spectacular waterfalls high up on the cliffs that would disappear as quickly as the rain shower passed. The trail to lower Emerald Pools was paved and relatively easy with some ups and downs. There were loads of people walking it, including many families with little kids. It made us wonder what it must be like when school gets out. The further we hiked, the more rugged the trail and there were somewhat fewer people, but still it was a pretty busy trail. None of the pools had much water in them and there wasn’t much water coming over the cliff from Middle Emerald Pools as we walked behind the waterfalls next to Lower Emerald. It was cloudy most of the way and rain sprinkled down off and on. The temperature was in the high sixties but the hike kept us plenty warm in our rain hats and jackets. Along the way there were wild flowers in bloom and a mule deer browsing next to the trail. At the Upper Pool there were quite a few people and the rain began to fall in earnest for a while so we didn’t stay a real long time. When we got back to the Lodge we treated ourselves to their one-size soft serve cone, which was expensive but HUGE. From there we took the Shuttle down canyon to “The Junction” where we hiked on the really nice Pa’Rus Trail, which was added about the time the Shuttles were put in to get people off the road and closer to the river. Zion is a semi-arid climate that gets 12-15” of rain a year. There are lots of desert plants like yuccas and cactus, but we had at least some rain every day we were there. Therefore, we were treated to a gorgeous display of wild flowers and cactus in bloom, including claret cup and prickly pear cactus. We walked about a mile or so on the trail and then followed a spur trail up to the Human History Museum, which was closed, but from which we could take a shuttle back to the Visitors Center to walk back to the campsite. We had walked over 3 miles by then and we were feeling it. So we relaxed for a while and then made grilled pork chops and red beans and rice for dinner. Afterwards we rode our bikes a short way up the Pa’Rus Trail to see this end of it. After working on pictures and the Blog and reading about the area we got to bed.