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I learned that the richness of life is found in adventure. . . . It develops self-reliance and independence. Life then teems with excitement. There is stagnation only in security.
- William Orville Douglas
5/19/07 Start - 10:00 AM Pacific Time - Las Vegas, NV - 1600 ft above sea level
Finish - 10:00 PM Mountain Time - Dixie National Forest, UT - 7652 ft above sea level
Distance Traveled ~ 400 miles
States - NV, AZ, and UT Zion National Park
After my wild night in Vegas last night, I decided it would behoove me to sleep in a bit, so that's exactly what I did. I woke up around 9:30 (is it sad that in must a week my idea of "sleeping in" changed from 1 PM to 9:30 AM?) to the wonderful smells ocoming from Alana's kitchen. It turned out that her parents in all of their awesomeness were making sausage and pancakes, and that made me very happy indeed. After putting my stuff back in my truck and enjoying a glorious breakfast feast, I bid adieu to Alana and her family, thanked them for being so hospitable, and
I hit the road. As I was doing that al little later than usual, I felt a strange sensation of discomfort at being "off schedule". I quickly registered what that was and pushed it out of my head. That thought had no place on this trip. I headed NE out of Las Vegas and very quickyl got into the desert. I got onto I-15 and before I knew it I left Nevada. Now, I thought that I had gone into Utah, but it turns out that on that road between Nevada and Utah is actually a little bit of Arizona. So after driving through that little bit of Arizona, I finally entered Utah. Like Nevada, before I drove into Utah on this trip, I had never been there, so that was kind of neat. Once in Utah, my first stop was going to be Zion National Park. When I got there, I was struck by how much it reminded me of a ski town. I had to park in the town and then catch a shuttle bus to the park itself. Once there I realized that there weren't all that many trails around the visitor center, but there was another
shuttle I could take that would take me on a scenic drive around the park, and all of the big trailheads were off that shuttle route. I figured I could drive scenicly by myself so after doing a short 1.5 mile hike up to some Indian ruins, I headed out.
Bryce Canyon National Park
My next stop was Bryce Canyon National Park. I had to drive kind of fast because I wanted to get there before 5 adn was going to be pushing it. But I did make it (I needed to get to the visitor center before it closed so that I could get a park map) and was able to see something that I will always remember. I think it's safe to say that I've traveled a little bit and seen some fairly neat things over my life. However, I have been to two places that were literally so awe-inspiring that I actually had trouble breathing. On of those was Milford Sound in New Zealand, and up until today I owuld have said that no other place in the world could have had that effect on me. That is until I saw Bryce Canyon. Thousands
of sandstone pillars reaching high out of a pine forest, I can't describe it and do it any sort of justice, so I won't even try. However, I will say that I was able to do a 3 mile hike/jog down into the canyon and back up... and that's something that I never got to do at Milford Sound.
May 20th - today
After spending a night in Dixie National Forest, I headed further East to Capital Reef National Park. I did a nice hike there but left after a couple miles because it started to rain. At this point, I had a decision to make... where to go. I ultimately decided to drive straight to Denver about 500 miles away. I missed being with people, and I had friends there. I was able to spend a couple nights with my friend Nat and it was good just to kind of relax and not drive. On the 23rd, I drove up to Lander where I have been preparing for my course since. Sorry this part is so abbreviated, but I've got a lot of other stuff I need to do. I'll be incommunicado for a month,
and hopefully I'll see everybody on the other side!
-Chris
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Jessica
non-member comment
I wanna go to Vegas! Zion looks amazing Those Prickley pears look delicious. Are they edible?