A walk in the park

I had to work out how to visit both Zion and Arches National Park and still be able to head south to Arizona through Monument Valley, as they are all in separate corners of Utah. I decided on a several hundred mile zigzag, first stop Zion, then Arches via Bryce Canyon before heading south.

Getting out of Salt Lake City proved difficult due to a combination of crap signposting and my own failure to believe what my compass was telling me. At Aurora I stopped to take a picture of the Pahvant Range, the prettiest mountains I'd seen. Layers of red and white sandstone make them appear for all the world like raspberry ripple ice cream.

I passed Bryce Canyon and found myself getting annoyed at the state of the roads, they looked like someone had driven a brigade of tanks over them. Then I hit roadworks and realised that some genius had done that to the road deliberately, so it could be resurfaced. Whoever came up with that idea doesn't ride a bike. Turning off the main highway though it was all forgotten as I entered Zion National Park.

Zion is the "middle" of the grand staircase, ancient sandstone layering that begins in Grand Canyon and ends at Bryce. The sandstone of Zion, bright red and creamy white, has been eroded into peaks and canyons that are truly mind boggling. Peaks with chequerboard effects, peaks that look like some giant plasterer has applied a loose coat, waves of layered sandstone that you would swear couldn't have occurred naturally. I was opened mouthed and shaking my head in disbelief. After checking into a motel just outside the park, I immediately rode back the way I came to take some pictures as the sun sank.

I made arrangements to stay a second night so that I could do some hiking in the park the next day. Dinner was "Navajo taco", a hunk of fried bread covered in chilli, cheese, onion and pepper which was delicious.

I've wanted to see a slot canyon most of my adult life, so it was pretty easy to choose a hike the next day. The Zion Narrows is a slot cut into the sandstone by the Virgin River, and it's possible to hike the entire canyon if you have a couple of days, and the relevant equipment. I decided to hike in for a few hours and then turn round, so I visited a store in the small town of Springdale and managed to rent some canyoneering boots and a walking pole.

Access to the park is by propane powered shuttle bus, and the bus ran me to the trailhead. The trail was like something out of a dream - cactus, large yellow and black butterflies, bright red dragonflies, leopard lizards. After an easy mile the path stopped and I had to walk up the river. Most of the going was easy to start with, and dozens of other tourists were sloshing their way upstream. The canyon narrows as it goes up, the tougher sandstone meaning that the river has cut down, rather than across. I fought my way across a few sections of top-of-the-thighs deep water and after that it seemed to be serious walkers only.



I was determined to reach a place called "Wall Street", a 20 feet wide by 1500 feet deep vertical cleft about 3 hours upstream, but I was also on a time limit as I had to return the rented gear. By the time I reached a fork I knew I was doing ok, about two hours in and not far from my goal according to my map. By this point I was on my own which is usually a bad sign, but then Wall Street began and it was worth the hike. The slot was so dim at the bottom that bats flitted over the water catching insects. At the top, the red rock glowed in the late afternoon sun. Magic.

A short time later I turned round and headed back, which I'd assumed would be faster (downstream, not stopping to take so many photos) but it actually took longer because I took just as many photos and I bumped into a deer and her fawns, almost literally. They were on the path and I had to get into the river and go around them so they weren't disturbed. I guess they must have got in the same way I did, or by parachute.

Fatigue was setting in and the jarring my legs were taking wasn't helping, stumbling over slick wet rocks. Added to that my feet started to hurt again where I bruised them coming off the bike. So I was pretty relieved to start seeing more and more people, a sign I was coming back to the beginning.

I managed to get the rental gear back 15 minutes before the shop closed, then had some dinner and decided that my poor aches and pains warranted a dip in the hotel hot tub. The tub is outdoors, so I sat in it under the perfect night sky, listening to the music of the Cicadas and thinking about my day.

It's tough, this adventure motorcycling business.

Tomorrow I head up to Arches, but I can't help thinking about a quote by a guy from the US Geological Survey:

"If you are old, go to Zion by all means, but if you are young, stay away until you grow older... It is not well to dull one's capacity for enjoyment by seeing the finest first."

Frase.