Zion National Park

---

Tuesday October 11, 2016 - This morning we got up early and met Steph for breakfast in the casino at 7am. Shortly afterward, we were already saying goodbye. It was a short visit, but was so glad she came to see us. She had the rest of the day in Vegas and we got the shuttle back to the airport and picked up our rental car. We hadn't booked a GPS for the car. The cost would be the same as buying a new one, which I figured we could do if we needed one. Luckily, we found a car that had a GPS in it already, and that helped a lot.

From the airport we set out for Zion National Park in Utah, about a three hour drive away. We got there in the early afternoon, parked in town, grabbed some deli sandwiches and then the shuttle bus to the park, as you're not allowed to drive there since it's so busy. The bus system was easy to use and we took it to the end to check out an area called The Narrows, where a hike in a river in a narrow canyon begins. We decided not to do the hike, but it was a cool place to check out. We walked back a bit on the bus road, checked out a hidden waterfall and hiked to Weeping Rock. Along the way we saw several mule deer and chipmunks.

We then drove to Kanab, about an hour away, where we would stay for three nights. We started to notice a dismaying trend of dead deer by the side of the road. I was a bit nervous about hitting one at some point, but it all went ok. After checking in to the hotel, it was a bit late and we were exhausted, so we stopped at Wendy's for dinner rather than sit down longer somewhere. Frosty's make it all worth while, and this was the start of many burgers and milkshakes along the way.

Wednesday October 12, 2016 - We spent the full day in Zion today. We started with a hike to Angel's Landing, which we both walked together for a while, and then it became a bit harder, with steep drop-offs on each side and chains that you could hold on to. I decided to keep going but Jeroen didn't feel up to it, so he waited about an hour for me to go and return. So beautiful.

Before hiking back, we had our sandwiches for lunch and then hikes some more to the visitor's center to watch the 20 minute introduction movie. We decided to make these "intro" movies into exit movies instead, and it worked well for us as a nice recap of the day.

Back in Kanab, we walked to dinner at a local hangout called Houston's. I ordered the chicken fried steak, and when it arrived, I leaned back a bit to take a picture. I was pushing on the floor with my feet to get a better view, when my foot slipped hard into the table leg. I slammed my flip-flopped toe hard and the pain was surprising. I could see that something was wrong with my toenail and eventually hobbled over to the bathroom. Once I got in there, I locked myself in a stall and started sobbing. I think it was just a shock, as well as extremely painful. Luckily no one was in there or they probably would have thought that my boyfriend just broke up with me. Just when I finished howling, the waitress came in saying Jeroen had sent her to check on me, since he couldn't come in, and she brought me some band-aids. She was actually shockingly uninterested, but the band-aids helped.

Back at the table my dinner was cold, but I ate it, and then we stopped at a shore next to the hostel on the walk home. Levis were on sale, and despite the pain of trying them on (I realized you have to start with your big toe!), I found a pair I liked and the retail therapy helped. The fact that they were a smaller size than I anticipated helped.

---

Comments

[Dancing Dave]

Extraordinary
Gotta be the most extraordinary stone arch I've seen...defies logic and so unlike other stone arches in the region. I'll post it in the Strange Geology thread in the Photography Forum.