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Published: September 23rd 2009
Watchman Campground
The view from our campsiteInitially, this long weekend trip to Zion was supposed to be with a group of friends. Since none of them were able to make it, I changed it to a family camping weekend. My mom, sister, and her boyfriend all came along. For my mom, this would be her first camping experience. It will be quite interesting to see how well she deals with it. I picked up our rental car for the weekend; a Chevy HHD, on Friday after work. After packing up all our camping supplies, food, and personal belongings, there was barely enough room for the 4 of us! The trunk was packed all the way up to the roof of the car blocking my view out the rear-view mirror. The plan was to drive through the night in order to arrive in Zion early on Saturday morning. We departed at around 12:30am and set off for the long drive.
Driving north on Interstate 15, we arrived in Las Vegas at approximately 5am. There was some interest in perhaps getting a buffet breakfast but at 5am, it was far too early for that. Arriving in St. George, Utah around 7am, we searched for a Wal-Mart in
Watchman Campground
The view from our campsite order to find a sleeping bag for Josie and Tom who had somehow forgotten to bring one. We also seeked out an Albertsons as well as stopped at an IHOP in order to get some breakfast. We finally pulled into Zion National Park around 9:30, only to find out that the previous days campers had yet to vacate the site. Since they had until 11am to leave, we had about 1 1/2 hours to kill. Finally able to check in, we were assigned to Loop C, Site 33 in the RV section. The next few hours were spent setting up our tents, resting, and getting acquainted with the area. By now the morning coolness had given way to a scorching afternoon. There was little shade at the campsite and seeking refuge inside the tent was definitely not an option as it was as warm as an oven in there. We decided to go explore the park but since we were all sleep deprived, any hiking would be put off until tomorrow. For now, we just rode around on their free shuttle service around the park. The shuttle route contained 7 stops but we only got off at one, The Court
of The Patriarchs. The hike to the scenic view point was very easy, a quick 2 minutes with a slight incline. At the viewpoint was a great unhindered view of the Patriarchs, a group of 3 sandstone cliffs named after figures from the Old Testament. We took the obligatory photos before returning to the shuttle. Since we were all on low energy we returned back to the campsite instead of exploring any further.
Back at the campsite, we discovered that a few squirrels had managed to eat their way through the tent in order to get at the food that mom had put inside. Before leaving, I had seen her put the food in the tent. I should have know better but perhaps it was the sleep deprivation that caused this lapse of good judgement. Once inside the tent, the squirrels ate through the food bag and scattered crumbs all over the tent. They even managed to get inside the bag containing my clothes! I went inside the tent to start cleaning their mess. I moved a pillow to find one of the squirrels still hiding. It began to frantically run around searching for an escape. Afraid of
getting bit, I quickly jumped out before the squirrel followed my lead. The rest of the evening and into the night was just spent relaxing around the campsite. Throughout most of the day, thunder clouds began to form north of Zion and the winds started to pick up. Eventually by sunset the sky above us was cloud covered and the winds were now gusting. Since we were placed in the RV section of the campsite, all of our fellow campers had retreated back into their RVs. Around 8 to 8:30, the skies opened up and a heavy downpour came bursting down for just a few minutes. We all ran for shelter inside our tents where we would remain for the rest of the night. With nothing else to do and after such a long day, I just decided to crash and go to bed. For the first hour, I was unable to fall asleep as wind gusts would blow through and completely rattle our tent. All I could think of was a torrential downpour coming down in the middle of the night and a flash flood roaring down the canyon!
After surviving the night without being swept away,
Tom and I headed out around 9am to hike up Angels Landing. Knowing that it would be a very strenuous hike, Josie and mom decided to stay back and do a little exploring on their own. Based on last years experience on the trail, I had prepared myself mentally for a very difficult ascent. Last year, the hike pushed me to the brink and I nearly quit several times. Since I knew what to expect, the hike didn seem nearly as strenuous as last year. Not that it wasn difficult, I still had to stop in order to catch my breath every few minutes. We made it to Scouts Lookout where Tom had thought we had completed the hike. He was surprised to learn that we still had the most difficult part ahead. The climb up the Angels Landing spine took about an hour. The hiking poles that were very handy on the trail had become a hinderance climbing up these rocks. Not wanting to be pressured to keep up with Toms faster pace, I told him to meet me at the top. When I finally arrived at the top of Angels Landing, the same feeling of accomplishment returned that
Campsite Visitors
2 deer exploring the campgrounds I had felt last year. Tom had been relaxing at the top for about 20 minutes before I finally arrived. We stayed up there enjoying the awesome views and playing with the aggressive little chipmunks. Going downhill is much more strenuous on the body than an uphill climb. At this point, the same knee that gave me trouble last year was acting up again. It was quite painful to bend my left knee which made scrambling down the rocks quite a difficult ordeal. The pain had yet to subside once I made it to the trail. I was clearly walking with a very noticeable limp and I even started walking backwards which was a lot more comfortable on the knee. I just had to be very careful not to go tumbling down the cliff. Once I finally made it to the valley floor, I heard Tom calling my name from the nearby stream. The mid-day sun and 4 hours of hiking made the cold stream a refreshing treat. I veered off the trail and walked over to the stream and just plopped myself down into river. After cooling off here for about 10 minutes, we made our way back to
Early Morning in Zion
The view from our campsite camp.
Back at camp, Josie and mom were busy preparing lunch. While we were hiking, they had explored the area around the Visitors Center and took the tram to the Zion Canyon Lodge. After a nice lunch of cheeseburgers, we had good intentions of doing the Zion Narrows hike. Instead, we settled for the easy Lower Emerald Pools Trail. We took the tram to Zion Lodge to the trailhead for this easy 1.25 round trip hike. Most of the trail was in the shade as it is surrounded by lush vegetation. Lower Emerald Pool is fed by a waterfall that falls into it from above. Being late summer, the flow was very light but the pool still looked quite refreshing. Too bad swimming is prohibited here. The trail continued into an alcove that heads around the waterfall. Tom decided that he would disregard the "Keep Off" sign and climb down into the pool. Back on the trail towards the lodge, we encountered some commotion as other hikers had spotted a rattlesnake slithering down the trail. We watched the snake for a few minutes and were entertained by the reaction some of the hikers. Its funny how some people
Angels Landing
Just starting out on the the trail act as if they
e life is about to end when the see a snake. It was just minding its own business and wasn even threatened as its tail wasn rattling. Some people I guess just have to act as if they
e in competition for the most dramatic award. Back at the camp, we spent our last night playing cards, admiring the abundance of stars, and finishing off the rest of our food. The next day, we were all eager to get home but not looking forward to the long drive. We set out around 9am and didn arrive back home until around 5pm. An 8 hour drive that included a buffet lunch stop at one of the Stateline casinos.l
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