Zion and Bryce with Jamie and Robby

Jamie, my sorority sister and senior year roommate, came out for her second trip with her boyfriend, Robby to play in Vegas/visit me. They stayed with me two nights before moving on to a Strip hotel (no, I didn't run them off, that was the plan!). Friday night I successfully made them hungry enough so that when dinner was served at 9:30pm, they devoured it without minding that I was the chef (with some crucial kitchen prep by Brad).

On Saturday, I wanted to let them escape the neon by taking a trip to visit two national parks in Utah, Zion and Bryce Canyon. Zion is a three hour drive from Vegas, and Bryce is an hour past there, so the plan was to wake up early and hit the road. The wine from the night before kept me in bed until 9am (and the headache lasted all day), so we didn't leave the house until 9:30am.

We got to Zion at about 2pm (we lost an hour with the time zone), and it was breathtaking. The main road through the canyon was closed to private vehicles because they are already in their summer traffic restrictions, but we were able to enjoy the scenery along Highway 9.
We looked for a picnic table along the way to eat our lunch, but we had to settle for this picnic rock along the side of the road.
After leaving Zion, we continued on to Bryce. This area of Utah is very rural with lots of horses and cows. In fact, as we were driving along Highway 89, we came across a herd of cattle being led along the side of the road. Being city folk, we pulled over to watch the scene. It is fitting that that we have Johnny Cash playing in the background on this video.

The trip between Zion and Bryce seemed to take forever, and we finally arrived at about 4:30 local time. Bryce is so interesting because you are several thousand feet above sea level, but you feel like you are on flat ground. You drive through the park and turn into overlook areas which peer into the canyon below. The geology is remarkable. Here are some good pictures of the hoodoos and videos of the amphitheater (turn down the volume so that your speakers don't bust from the sound of the wind and the Quebecois in the background).

We figured that since we came this far, we might as well drive the entire length of the park. The road is 18 miles long and ends at Rainbow Point, which is 9115 feet above sea level. The view looks over the entire park, and on a clear day you can see New Mexico (not that there was a sign pinpointing New Mexico).
We finally started the drive back at about 6:00 local time. We drove through Red Canyon, which not surprisingly had a scattering of red rocks. We stopped to take a picture of this neat arch, and Robby started running away from the car. He figured standing in the middle of the road was less risky than another minute in the car with me.
This sign bid us farewell as we left the scenery. I guess Dixie was the last national park to draw a slogan from the hat, and this is what it got stuck with.

The drive home was not nearly as excruciating as it should have been. Robby discovered that my backseat reclines, so he was asleep quickly, followed closely by Jamie. I spent the four hour drive catching up on my favorite podcast, the Living in Las Vegas Podcast. Thank you to Scott and Melissa for being highly entertaining and keeping me awake on the drive home. We pulled into my garage just before 11pm, for a 13+ hour day of driving. The drive to Zion was absolutely worth it, but I wouldn't go that far again just to see Bryce. I would say these parks are best seen by staying the weekend in Zion and taking a quick trip over to Bryce.

You can see more pictures from the day here

Zion National Park

The Las Vegas Hiking Meetup group went to Zion National Park in southern Utah this weekend to do a number of hikes. Almost everyone went up on Friday night and camped, but I am not much for sleeping on the ground. So I drove up Saturday morning with Calvin from my wine group. We had to meet the group at 9am Mountain time, and Zion is 3 hours away from Las Vegas, so we had to leave at 5am.

We started the day with a hike up to Angel's Landing. This rock formation gets its name because it is so narrow that only an angel could land on it. The peak is 5785 feet and 1500 feet above the canyon floor, and it was a 5 mile hike round trip. As you can see from the picture below, there is a sheer cliff on either side of a tiny spine.A chain railing follows the path almost the entire way to the top. In this picture, you can see the rail as well as the people making their way up.
I had seen pictures online prior to the trip that conveyed the narrowness of the spine. I took this picture at the most narrow point. The cliff on the left is clear. On the right, there appears to be brush, but those are actually trees at the bottom of the canyon.
This is one of the steepest points.
Here I am at the top with the canyon behind me. You can see the road below, and the tiny white line is the bus that runs throughout the park.
Our group at the top of Angel's Landing.
The beautiful view looking down the canyon.
Starting our way back down. For the second hike in a row, I ran into a group of French Canadians and got to practice my French. Who knew there were so many of them out here on the West coast.
After our first hike, we took a quick walk up to Weeping Rock, which has a small waterfall and hanging gardens. Then, we went to the Zion Lodge to eat lunch. I had packed a peanut butter sandwich, but the hot food and ice cream were too tempting! We ate under this huge tree on the grass with the mountains towering above us.
Our final hike of the day was the Emerald Pools trail. This was an easy 3 mile trail that passed by three sets of waterfalls and pools. This is the light waterfall at the Lower Emerald Pools.
The scenery along the way was magnificent, with beautiful views across the canyon.
Here I am at the Middle Emerald Pools.
And here I am at the Upper Emerald Pool. Our whole group waded or jumped into the water, which was cool and refreshing.
On the way back down - you can see the Virgin river at the bottom of the canyon below.
The setting sun had a nice effect on the mountains at the end of the day.
Calvin and I finally headed home at about 7pm. We had a great view of the sunset on the drive home, and we made it back to Las Vegas at about 9:30pm. I am jealous that the rest of the group camped another night and were planning on doing more hikes on Sunday. I'd like to go back to Zion soon to see some other parts of the park.
I filled up the entire 1GB memory card on my camera with pictures from the day! After deleting some of the duplicates and ones that didn't turn out, I ended with 217 keepers. If you have the time and patience to view 217 gorgeous pictures, you can see them here.