Monday, July 10, 2006

Zion By Harley

I took a road trip down to Zion National Park this weekend with Rosey, Dad, Andria, Marci and Malina. It was the first semi-long trip that Rosey had taken on the Harley and she did awesome. She struggled a little bit to get comfortable in the back seat of the bike but we managed. We may make a few modifications to the bike to increase her comfort before we take our next trip. We probably covered 500 miles over two days. Seriously, that's awesome that she not only survived that but was enthusiastic about it!



On Saturday we rode down Hwy 89 and came into Zion through the East entrance of the park. Riding through the east side of the park is like driving on another planet. The checkered and swirling red-rock formations are other-worldly.

We met up with Andrea, Marci and Malina mid-afternoon and then did a couple of hikes. Marci, Rosey and I hiked up to Hidden Canyon while Dad, Andrea and Malina lagged behind. Actually the three of them completed the most difficult part of the hike but then stopped because Andrea was uncomfortable hiking a section of the trail with some steep and scary drop-offs.



Later that night we did the Riverside walk and even hiked down the narrows for maybe a quarter of a mile. Unfortunately we brought the wrong shoes for walking in the river and Rosey twisted her ankle pretty good. We did get to a section of the narrows where the water was chest deep... well it was chest deep on me. Rosey missed the shallow section and ended up crossing through a section that was so deep that she had to swim :)



The rest of the family stayed the night at the Bumbleberry Inn but Rosey and I camped in the park at the Watchman campground. It ended up being a bad decision. Between the tiny tent that we brought along, a fierce, howling wind that blew all night long, and a late night conversation that lasted until the wee hours of the morning we hardly got any sleep at all. I may have gotten 3 hours of sleep but I think that Rosey got even less.

We woke up the next morning at 6 AM to meet the rest of the family for breakfast at Zion Lodge. I had been hoping to get some longer hikes in that morning but we were all feeling a little ragged and we had to get back to the hotel in time for Marci and Malina to get to church. So, we did a short hike up to the emerald pools and then headed home.



Rosey, Dad and I headed out on the bikes while Marci, Malina and Andrea went to church. We decided to take the scenic route home. We stopped through Kolob canyon to do a scenic ride and got some incredible pictures of the redrock cliffs up there. Further up I-15 we cut through Cedar City and went back up into the mountains to Cedar Breaks National Monument.



We were planning on taking Hwy 89 back home from Panguitch but once we got there the threat of thunderstorms and the desire to get home as quickly as possible sent us back out to I-15. About 30 miles south of Fillmore the lack of sleep hit Rosey and I. We were both having trouble staying awake on the bike. Yeah, that's not a good problem to have on a bike :) So, we stopped in Fillmore and loaded up on Caffeine and sugar. It felt disgusting to ingest that much junk food but it was a matter of survival at that point :)

The rest of the pictures from the trip are here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good thing that the wader, not the swimmer, was carrying the camera !

Chris said...

Looks like an awesome time, so when are you going to introduce Rosey to Angles Landing? :)

Also I think it is so funny to see some traditions come through in all our photos from vacations, squirls and other animals in our path, flowers, bad signs, the I'm hanging from a rock wall, etc etc :) I can't help but chuckle a bit and remember our trips.

TK said...

It sounds like you had a really good weekend. And I'm happy that you had Rosey there to enjoy it with you - and that she enjoyed it too.