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 Day 12
Zion National Park
After vacating our cabin and driving thru the lower canyon to nearby
Springdale for breakfast, we return to the park to choose a campsite.
Then it’s off to the museum for a bit of geological and human history
and a beautiful introductory film of Zion National Park.
But to truly appreciate the grandeur of Zion
one must actually see it, and the National Park Service shuttle
busses make it easy, even with 2.5 million annual visitors. If riding a
shuttle bus sounds like a hassle, consider instead the alternative of
sitting immobilized in the fume-laden, bumper-to-bumper traffic snarls
that were common before the new bus system. Not the most enjoyable way
to experience the great outdoors.
Instead, as the bus driver points out
noteworthy sites of interest, we ride in air-conditioned comfort and
enjoy the views. When something sounds intriguing we simply hop off at
the next stop and go hiking or snap some photos or dabble our toes in
the river before catching another bus, another of which comes along
every six minutes.
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see the rock-climbers about two-thirds of the way up the wall? Of
course not. The cliffs are too large and the pixels too few. These
cliffs are 250-350 stories tall–two or three World Trade Center towers
could be stacked atop one another and not reach the canyon rim. |
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The
spectacular Zion Canyon was carved by the North Fork of the Virgin
River, which, over millions of years, has carried away several thousand
feet of rock that once lay above the highest layers visible today. The
river is still excavating today, eroding the shale, undermining the
overlaying sandstone and causing it to collapse, widening the canyon.
Occasional landslides and great house-sized chunks of sandstone pried
from the walls by the repeatedly freezing-and-thawing water continue to
widen the canyon and form rubble heaps at the base of the walls.
Darkness falls quickly here in the canyon. The valley is so deep and
narrow that the riverbanks receive only about four hours of direct
sunlight each day, before the sun vacates that narrow swath of sky
overhead and
disappears behind the canyon wall. We ride the bus to the visitor
center, then stroll back along the Virgin River to camp for a late
dinner.
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 Day 13 Zion National Park
We sleep in late today and enjoy a leisurely breakfast in camp. I take
Lorie into nearby Springdale for shopping, then drive back up the
Zion–Mt. Carmel Highway toward the east park entrance. Parking on a
roadside turnout, I hike up into the slickrock hills to explore
these beautifully sculpted and wind-weathered forms. Countless layers
of sand deposited on an ancient sea-bed 240 million years ago have
since hardened into stone. When the oceans receded, these landforms
were exposed to the wind and flowing and freezing waters, and even
today continue to be carved and shaped into their varied and evocative
forms.
To
walk in this quiet and alien landscape is to visit another realm, and
to glimpse some measure of what can result from miniscule and
imperceptible changes multiplied over countless eons. Nothing can
be as 'old as the hills' when compared to these ancient and weathered
bones of the earth lying exposed to daylight.
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The drive back down into the canyon is just as awe-inspiring as two
days ago when we saw it for the first time. It is plain to see why both
native peoples and later Mormon settlers each applied their respective
spiritual and religious names to this place, for it truly inspires
thoughts of a world beyond this one.
I meet Lorie near the visitor center to enjoy
our final sunset in this beautiful place. Tomorrow we will begin our
return journey north, then eastward to our home in the Midwest. After
the last fading rays of the sun depart from the canyon wall,
we enjoy gyros and beer in a small cafe, then begin our walk back
through the darkening park grounds to our camp. The narrow belt of
stars overhead seems all the brighter when framed on two sides by the
black and looming hulks of the canyon walls, and as I watch, a bright
new star moves into
view.
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Appearing from behind one rim of the canyon, this celestial
body—larger and brighter than any other—moves with an eerie and
determined grace across the starfield. Before we can utter a surprised
word to one another, a second and equally bright point of light
appears, following at a steady speed close behind the first. Together
and in tandem, this pair of bright stars tracks smoothly across the
night sky on a silent and disconcertingly straight
course.
Within
a moment, I recall hearing a radio report earlier that day about the
space shuttle Atlantis having undocked from the orbiting International
Space Station and pulling away to begin its return to Earth, and I
realize we must now be witnessing this super-aerial ballet. The pair
tracks across the dark sky—leading us from West to East—and I briefly
ponder their flight, and our own impending return to our home in the
East.
As first one point of light disappears behind
the opposite canyon wall, followed a moment later by the other, I can
only hope that our return journey from these high mountains to the
lowlands of our home does not resemble too closely the descent and
fiery re-entry that await those brave astronauts. Though finally
touching down in our driveway and familiar bed will be no less
sweet …
Jeffrey Earl is not a travel writer,
but he plays one on the internet.
Text and photography by Jeffrey Earl © 2002
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For the Vanageek
• Total Trip Mileage: 4781 Miles
• Total Fuel Used: 184 Gallons
• Overall Trip Average: 26 MPG
• Oil Consumption: 3 Qts.
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