We've got to keep on walking, on the road to Zion

June 14th - 18th, 2021

Hat tip to Damian Marley and Nas for the blog title. Any good road trip needs a good playlist, after all.

We arrived in Leeds, UT after a relatively short travel day from Bryce. We'd received a replacement faucet from Amazon at the Tropic, UT campground, which I installed when we arrived. So nice to have full kitchen sink capabilities back! Priorities. Leeds would be our springboard for exploring Zion, as everything closer to Springdale, was already booked solid.

Leeds was hot. Over 100 degrees. And it would stay over 100 degrees until we finally bailed on the desert all together. More on that in future blogs. If you were reading the news during this period of time, there were constant headlines about the "Historic Drought & Heat Wave" gripping the American West. Well, we lived it. And we've never seen temps like that before.

I'm happy to report that Destiny did just fine, as long as the temps stayed at or below 108 during the day, and dipped into the 70s at night. Which they mostly would while we were in Leeds for 4 nights. 

Given the extreme heat, all our activity was based around taking advantage of whatever cooler environments we could find. We'd go for our first hike, a 6 miler up into the canyon of the middle fork of the Taylor Creek, in the evening. By that I mean we started at 7PM, and finished just before dark at 9:30PM. It was an impressive hike, following the trickling waters of the creek to their genesis. The presence of water whatsoever created an oasis-like environment in the otherwise totally arid landscape. Towering cliffs drew sharp lines against the sky, and kept us corralled in our trail. As the distance between the walls narrowed, so did the creek, and soon we'd find a massive, half dome shaped, hole in the cliff. Muddy ground marked a struggling spring, from which bubbled up the faint beginnings of the creek. We'd only see a handful of other people on this hike, another truly notable characteristic, given the crowded nature of Zion National Park in general. 

The following day saw more soaring temperatures, and a long day in the mobile-office. Working from the camper hasn't been bad, but RV Park WiFi is generally sub-par, and the 110+ degree days were consistent in their ability to knock out any electronics that were intended to send us WiFi signal. We managed through it, using our iPhones as hot spots during the afternoon heat. Fortunately, our AC was keeping us cool, and the long days offered plenty of options for evening sojourns. This day we'd head over to a local reservoir, protected as Sandy Hollow State Park, our paddle boards again at the ready. The local shopping mall had an electronic display with the temps and time listed: 5:01PM - 112 degrees. I'm glad we were opting for the lake over the mountain today.

I joked with the ranger at the entrance gate that I wanted the "senior, local resident, veteran, half day rate", which confused him enough to get us $5 off the normal $20 out-of-state day use fee. I'm sure Kristin would rather pay the $5 than listen to my terrible jokes. We set up a sun shelter, snacks and a blanket, but the heat chased us into the water quite quickly, and we'd spend most of the time on our paddleboards. There are some neat rock formations to paddle around, all of them larger than normal given that the water was down six feet or so. I spotted a gathering of youth on a prominent rock, a short paddle down the beach. I suspected a cliff jump was near. I was correct! I've got 27 years of experience leaping into the water from high places, and Kristin accurately describes the pastime as "one of your 3 favorite things to do". I jumped 3 or 4 times from the 25' ledge, and chatted with the local boys who had all the tricks dialed in: back flips, running and diving over lower ledges, laid-out front flips, and of course, peacocking for the young ladies. It's good to know that nothing actually changes, and that we're all the same deep down. 

Our final day of exploring Zion would focus on the East Mesa section of the park. We would skip entirely the most popular area, the central road that divides the central canyon. This area is accessible by shuttle buses only, which do not have AC, and require lengthy waits to board. This would mean we wouldn't hike the famous Angel's Landing (good by me, I HATE that kind of heights), and the equally famous Narrows river trail. There were warnings of a toxic algae bloom this season, but it didn't seem to deter hundreds of tourists, outfitted with river shoes and walking staffs they'd rented, from marching toward the shuttle stop of their choice. We passed them in the truck along the quaint streets of Springdale, en route to the East Mesa. 

After the "Shuttles Only" access road, the route we drove took us winding up thousands of feet from the canyon floor to the mesa above. The road features many tight corners, pull offs for views and bushwhack hikes, and even a tunnel bored by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. We'd learn through experience that most trailers and large motorhomes could only pass single file. We would have to wait for one such motorist in front of us, stopped while waiting their turn to ride the yellow lines through the center of the 1.1 mile long tunnel. There are no lights, but the CCC cut windows into the shear cliff face in a few areas. It's a really nice and scenic ride.

Finally we reached the trail for the 7 mile, out and back, hike on the East Mesa Trail to Observation point. It's a relatively easy hike, if not boring for the first 2, and last 2 miles. Kristin nearly stepped on a juvenile rattle snake at a little vista a few miles in, and the last mile is a sandy, downhill walk with little to no shade to the observation point. But the views were amazing. We chatted with fellow hikers, enjoyed a nice snack, and watched a cute little desert chipmunk scavenge my carelessly dropped peanuts, before cooling himself by flattening against the sand in the shade. The walk out was a bit warm, as we'd finish close to 12:30PM, but up at over 6000' it was bearable.

The views driving back down into the canyon along the same twisty, mountain road, were somehow more impressive. Most of the crowds had left, having timed their visits to finish before the heat of the day. Kristin and I were taking our time, stopping to photograph the sandstone mountains and scenery. At one point, Kristin shouted "I see a deer!", so I pulled over immediately at a nearby pull off. A group of 4 hikers popped up from a low point along the road, and asked if I knew anything about where we were. Nope. So they pointed into a slot canyon a few hundred yards away and said, "it's natural AC in there, go check it out". We strapped our shoes back on, grabbed some snacks, and went hunting for deer and natural AC. We'd shortly encounter both. 

The tight canyon in front of us offered a small opening we could slide into, and would range between 3' and 5' wide as it snaked another hundred yards into the mountain. The people weren't joking, it was 30 degrees cooler in there! Eventually, the tight crevasse became full of water, so we turned back, and after exiting, decided to climb up onto a big rock outcropping for lunch. Much to our surprise, we found the "deer" up on top. In fact, they were long horn sheep, and we'd see a half dozen of them grazing on the sparse desert shrubs, while we did the same on crackers and tuna. This sort of happenstance is always a really fun part of exploring, and was truly a highlight of the day. One should always leave time in their itinerary for magical little occurrences.

All in all, Zion was really impressive. I think we'll return some day, and I know we could keep ourselves busy exploring the park, and the town of Springdale. Next stop, Joshua Tree... but only briefly, somehow, it's supposed to get HOTTER. 

For more photos from our adventures at Zion, click here.