Zion 2011

"In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away."  Shing Ziong

On our way out of the Grand Canyon

On Wednesday we had breakfast again in the dining room, next to the roaring fire, a nice touch, although not expected in May.  We then hit the road for the drive to Zion National Park in southern Utah.  I had looked at maps, but was still pleasantly surprised when I found us driving through the Painted Desert.  It’s amazing the land that spreads as far as the eye can see out West.  Having spent most of my life in the Northeast, we think we see lot of land while driving through Maine and Vermont, but it can’t begin to compare to the vastness of land out west.  We also found ourselves spending a good amount of that day on Navajo Reservation land.  Very enterprising Navajo Women set up stalls along the highway selling their crafts and wares.  We drove by many, one sign offered horse hair pottery, interesting…I finally couldn’t stand it, and my Husband stopped for me on a gorgeous overlook where about six Ladies had set up their stalls.  I managed to buy a shower gift (a Horsehair piece of pottery that was a Wedding vessel that I would use as a vase.  It was Beautiful!), some jewelry trinkets for the Girls, and a beautiful lapis necklace for moi…all for less than $75!).

Zion

Beautiful day for a road trip, and we finally entered Zion National Park late afternoon after driving along an interestingly fun road with tunnels, bridges, and spectacular scenery.  As we drove to the Lodge to check in we felt like we were in a smaller version of Yosemite.  I will say it again, God Bless the Powers that Were who decided to protect some of our most beautiful Lands as the National Parks.

View from our little porch

Our little cabin was charming, and clean, with a gas fireplace, lovely touch.  We settled in and went for a ver nicee dinner in the dining room, where we ended up having most of our meals.  Good honest food reasonably priced with friendly helpful waitstaff, great.

On our first full day in Zion, after breakfast we caught one of the buses that drive the road through Zion. (No personal cars are allowed to drive the road.  We had been allowed to drive as far as the lodge as guests there.)  The buses are great, they stop at the major pints and the drivers often give small bits and pieces along the way.  You jump on and off at your pleasure, and leisure.  As we drove along my Husband pointed to a rock face with what appeared to be ants climbing, rock climbers.  God love them, that is one form of outdoor activity that has never, nor will ever, call to me.

We spent the day hiking, walking, exploring the beauty that is Zion.  Our last hike of the day was our longest and we started it right from our cabin.  It took us through trees under waterfalls high up until we found ourselves faced with a towering waterfall.  Truly majestic and beautiful. 

That evening after dinner we went over to one of the campgrounds for a Ranger lead talk.  It was on the topic of night time skies.  Very nice, definitely geared to all the youngsters in the group, many in their pj’s armed with their teddy bears!  The major focus was protecting our night time sky from the glare of modern technology (using the lights of Vegas as a prime, albeit beautiful in its own way, example).

Last morning we packed up our things, had a final breakfast at the Lodge, and bid farewell, for this visit to Zion National Park.  We took our time and ventured slowly past the beauty of it all.  As we headed toward Las Vegas with plenty of time to kill before our late flight home we decided that we were not interested in the “Strip” of Vegas after having spent so much time in natural beauty.  I found a mall with a movie theatre so we stayed cool getting a bite to eat and watching a chick flick, fun cast, silly no-mind movie.  Perfect way to end a great vacation.