Utah National Parks

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Later in the day after leaving the Grand Canyon, we followed the advice of a couple of cheerful ladies in an electronics store and camped at The Coral Pink dunes which were a set of huge (and pink) dunes. It was a bit of an off-road play centre, but thankfully all the ATVs stopped at dinner time and didn't start up again. We sat and watched the stars for a while as it was a beautiful evening. There wer e a lot of shooting stars too.

oh, the reason for being in a small electronic store was trying to find power adaptors and connectors so we could listen to our mp3 players through the car stereo. Chris had come up with the Universal Law of American Radio: "The strength of the signal is inversely proportional to the quality of the broadcast". Everytime we'd find some interesting discussion or decent music, we would lose reception around the next corner. And yet REALLY bad country music, or even worse - Christian radio bible bashers came blaring out at high volume even in a tunnel. Bah!

Early the next morning it was bucketing down rain - thankfully it eased just before we got up (or we waited until it eased before getting out of bed - you decide). We then drove to Zion National Park (through the rain again!) and stayed in a beautiful campground at only $16 per night. It was still pretty early when we arrived, so after setting up we went on a short walk up to The Watchman View. It was pretty quiet on this walk - not too many others around. After a yummy hot lunch (mmm packet soup) we went on a walk up to The Emerald Pools. There were three waterfalls and it was really pretty (and muddy). It was also really popular with heaps of others wandering around. On the way back down we passed a group of people gathered around a "tarantula" which was some pretty unimpressive spider. Bah! They haven't seen a Northern Rivers NSW Huntsman! In the evening we went to a nearby diner which had plenty of vegetarian options including an amazing felafel wrap, and a tasty pizza. They also had free wireless which was a bonus!

Thursday morning and we had a couple of walks planned. We dropped by the same diner as last night again to get one of their wraps as a take-away to have for lunch. We started with the Hidden Canyon walk, which climbed up pretty rapidly and skirted along the edge of some huge cliffs before travelling up between two mountains, gradually getting harder and harder to pass. It was great fun with plenty of scrambling and rock climbing until we finally got to a point where there was no obvious way to keep going. A few other people made it this far and also used it as a turn arond point (after stopping for a snack). We made our way back down and jumped on one of the shuttle buses to get to the start of the Riverside walk which was right at the end of the road. We followed it for a fair distance and crossed the stream a couple of times, but decided not to go any further. It goes for a fair way getting narrower and narrower and the rangers advise experience with (and equipment for) swimming up streams and over boulders. The large amount of rain they had had recently made the water very brown and you couldn't see the bottom which was covered in pebbles and boulders. Makes for tricky walking! We caught the shuttle back to the main camp just in time to go and watch an IMAX film called "Secrets of the Canyon". It was interesting, had some great footage but went a bit over the top on the atmostpheric/dramatic music. After dinner we came back to the cinema to watch the latest Batman on the huge screen. That was cool. :-)

The next morning we had a long drive ahead of us, so another early start, followed by a strong coffee saw us on our way. We are starting to get used to these American style coffees (yes, I know it's shocking, but $1.90 for 600ml of caffeinated beverage can't be wrong... can it?). We were on our way to Moab! Arriving pretty late in the day we found a campground to stay in, and Chris set about trying to get a bike to hire and perhaps a tour to join. A full suspension Niner was found (having never ridden a 29" before, this should be fun), and some numbers written down for sorting a lift out to the trails. Unfortunately the numbers weren't of any use as one group were going elsewhere, and another were on holidays. Thankfully the famous "slickrock" trails were within riding distance. The slickrock trails are very different to any other surface to ride on. Despite what the name sounds like, they actually give an insane amount of grip. You can ride up an incredibly steep slope, leaning over the front wheel and the backwheel won't spin. So, the limit to your climbing becomes your leg power and how well you can hold the front wheel down and stop your self backflipping down a rock slope (ouch). Chris started up one slope near some other riders and not wanting to look like a wuss and stop he kept going up even when it got very steep. The result was that his heart could probably be heard somewhere in California, and he soon after felt like vomiting. Still.... at least that's better than looking like a wuss (none of the other riders made it up so all good). Along the ride he met a bunch of mad Belgians who had been riding fat tyre bikes all over the area for the last two weeks, a French guy who wanted to hike along the trail, and listened to a beginner getting coached on when to change gears and how to climb. No rattlesnakes or mountain lions were seen - disappointing.

Nena spent the morning wandering around Moab, drooling at awesome camping gear, and was surprised when Chris rolled back into camp just after lunch. Chris had discovered that his new camelback backpack didn't hold enough water for spending several hours riding in the desert. For a recovery we both went and grabbed a iced mocha and a pecan praline thickshake (bloody tasty). In the evening we went to the nearby Arches National Park to check out the ... arches. They are huge - see the photos. It was great to be standing in the desert and having bats flying around - occasionally appearing in a flash through our torch beams. When we got home, Chris dyed Nena's hair red.

The next day we had another long drive ahead of us, so we pulled the camp down fast and went to a great little cafe "Eklectica". Nena had Huevos rancheros with green chilli, and Chris had scrambled eggs with brown rice, wakame and a sesame/ginger sauce. Very multicultural right? Tasted great. Coffee was... pretty bad. oh well. The cafe shop had a lot of locally made things for sale too (mainly jewellery), and Nena bought a pair of pewter earings. Out on the road we stopped for a stronger (though not necessarily tastier) coffee, and then stopped again in Salt Lake City for some more Burning Man supplies. We spent the night in a random hotel somewhere along the way (there were people on their way to Burning Man everywhere!) before driving on to Black Rock City and Burning Man!

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Photos

Ho-made
Yep... made by a ho. This was just near Zion National Park.

Misty Arrival
Driving in to Zion was pretty beautiful

Zion National Park
Off for our first walk and the weather was much better.

My Eyes!
Sorry - just playing with effects on the camera.

Ansell Adams?
pfft who needs a large format f64 camera. Our little point and shoot Canon did pretty well at f8. :-)

Emeral Pools
Not a massive amoumt of water, but still really nice.

Up High
The photo doesn't do justice to how high we were, and the rather scary drop right in front.

Oh Good a chain
Just don't look down and to the right - huge drop and no rails or anything. What was fun was seeing what happens when you get someone coming the other direction at the same time.

Into the Hidden Canyon
Getting narrower.

Wave Rocks
Beautiful formations

Comments

[Camille]

BIG
Yep, them thar hills are pretty big! Loved all these photos, thankyou