This is how my husband and me are going to do this:
- Las Vegas is the closest airport to Zion National Park.
- 1st –2nd day: From here we rent a car, hopefully a wagon, and drive to Zion, which is 3 hours away in the Northeast direction. Zion follows Mountain Time, so effectively it is going to take us 4 hrs to be at Zion National Park. Stay Overnight. Catch sunrise at Zion.
- 2nd-3rd day: Drive to Bryce Canyon National Park. Catch the sunset at Bryce. Have to come at least by mid morning to get a campsite.
- 3rd day: Now I am lost, as we are on a 10 day trip.
- Aim is to go to Zion National Park, Bryce National Park, Antelope Canyon, Arches National Park, than drive to Grand Teton national Park, and end up in Yellowstone for a few days, and finally drive to Seattle to fly out to Philadelphia.
The above was written at the beginning of the trip, when I am waiting at the Las Vegas airport for Nandan to show up from Philadelphia. I continue to write this after the trip is over.
I flew from Santa Barbara to Las Vegas, and Nandan is flying from Philadelphia to Las Vegas. We rent a car and drive from LV to our first stop Zion National Park. The car is an oven at 110°C outside temperature; the scenery outside consists mainly of shrubs, sand and dry mountains...bottomline, very uninteresting. As we drive from Las Vegas, Nevada and cross into Arizona for a few miles and enter Utah, land of Canyons. The soil and mountains change from the drab grey to gorgeous reds and oranges; there are huge chunks of exposed sandstone. Totally breathtaking!
After 2 hours, we enter the tiny town of Silverdale, which lies at the entrance of the Zion National Park. The town is dotted by Bed and Breakfast, eating joints, jewelry/arts stores and outdoor sports stores. Stayed at a cute and cozy Bad and Breakfast called “Red Rock Inn”, its beautiful and we could walk out the door and look at the majestic “Red Rocks” of the Zion National Park. The evening light brings out all the hues of reds and orange emphasizing the different facets of the rock, which has weathered and eroded over the years.
We were overjoyed at this abundance of natural beauty, relaxed and enjoying our final vacation in US of A. Next morning we try getting up early at 9am, and run to Zion Park, in order to book a camping site for the 2nd night. After which we returned to the inn, and enjoyed our amazing breakfast, which is part of the bed and breakfast deal. Lazily, as the morning passed by, we ended up in the National Park, and got on the shuttle that takes you through the park. Zion National Park has restricted the entry of private vehicles in the scenic drive through the canyons in summer, which is the peak tourist season.
The sun was blazing by 1pm, so we came back and started putting our tent up as this was our first time camping all by ourselves and we had to deal witha new tent. Surprisingly, the whole process was simple and takes us 30mins. All set, and we were going to a few sweet spots inside Zion and hike a few trails. We picked 2 trails that had moderate levels of difficulty and was associated to some form of water and decided to pursue them later in the afternoon. First we wanted to drive through the famous tunnels carved out of solid sandstone, which is an engineering feat and scary at the same time of man's power over nature.
Temperature seems to have dropped a few degrees, we are ready to hike the trails. The Weeping Rock, was a steep trail of 0.5mile roundtrip, which ended up in a huge sandstone projection, from which water was seeping out constantly. As sandstone is porous, the rainwater gets trapped into the stone and slowly seeps it way out, the whole process takes about 7-8years or more. Once you touch the moss, and feel the water drip on you, it is hard to believe you are in a desert like atmosphere; its an oasis with a totally different ecosystem. This trail starts at the bridge under which meanders “Virgin River”, which looks so meek and humble but is at the same time responsible for carving out these huge canyonland, which is known as “Zion National Park”.
Then we rushed into the shuttle and got to the more interesting trail that ends in the “Narrows”, about 1.5 mile roundtrip. Easy and beautiful hike, starts at the Temple of Sinawava, continues along the banks of the Virgin river and ends in the river. People trek though this river upward or downward, the water is freezing cold when the atmospheric temperature is more than 100°C. This is a unique experience, and this river hike leads into the canyon where the walls are narrower, and tourists are few. This trek requires top physical condition, proper gear and is at least a full day event; so, we did not even think of doing it.
It was 9pm already, getting dark, we are hungry, and we had to go to our tents and sleep. We put up our tent inside the park in the South Campground. Getting there and coming out of our car, we were surrounded by millions of bugs, a swoosh of bug spray all over us, got us from wilderness to civilization in seconds. We got into the tent, got comfortable and looked at the night sky, which had my favorite Seven stars and millions of others. Late in the night, wanted to go to restroom, kept hearing the winds go through the trees, finally got the guts to wake up and go to the bathroom along with Nandan. Came back running into the tent, got inside, peeked out, and realized what I was looking at was for real: the sky was glittering silver and gold, washed with the bright stars, small stars, faint stars, shaped stars…. and just so many stars, that their was barely any place in between stars. I haven’t seen such a pitch-dark sky, with no light pollution from cities, just a sheet of stars so bright, you are assured that it is heaven in its full glory. Perfect scenario to slip into a dream.Woke up late the next morning, packed up our tent, got some breakfast, left the majestic and solemn sandstone cliffs, hit the road towards Bryce Canyon, our next stop.
No comments:
Post a Comment