“The Narrows” was the perfect plunge into vacation mode.
After dropping off luggage, we hopped onto the seasonally mandatory shuttle bus and rode toward its uppermost stop, the Temple of Sinewava. Each curve of the road took us deeper into the intriguing walls of Zion. We craned to see rocks that stretched up like skyscrapers, sipped water from our Camelbaks and constantly nudged one another to “look at that!”
The road to Zion extended from an Enterprise rental lot outside Las Vegas McCarran International Airport, past the Strip and well beyond tenacious Mesquite, Nevada. A “Welcome to Arizona” sign came as a complete surprise as we traveled northeast on I-15, but a quick (frantic) check of our Google directions confirmed a “passing through Arizona” before Utah. Whew. That one scared me a little!
The landscape did a rapid transformation from man-made glitz into stubbled desert southwest. This soon segued into ever-growing cliffs that edged toward our roadway and up towards a sky that bloomed blue. It was a windows down kind of drive even with triple digit temperatures.
Once in Utah, we enjoyed the novelty of long stretches of nothingness dotted by municipal blips with names such as Hurricane, La Verkin and Rockville. The latter’s street lights consisted of a series of single light bulbs dangled from the wires periodically strung across Route 9. A hand-lettered sign in La Verkin outlined a former business owner’s vehement discontent with city politics; I bet they have some interesting community parades there… One of the town’s more easy-going residents had appended a cautionary “Watch Children” sign with “act like monkeys.”
Zion National Park gave us tantalizing glimpses of its glory as we rounded bend after bend after bend. Our goal was Springdale on park’s edge, and more specifically, the Cliffrose Lodge which would be our base for the next few days. We passed a doggy day camp with little white tents and an organic orchard before finally rolling into the strip of civilization that has grown out of Zion’s popularity.
The Cliffrose had luxurious views that made up for its average accommodations and was within easy walking distance of the park entrance. With the Virgin 
River in its backyard and balcony views of Zion’s peaks fronted by the lodge’s lush gardens, we were happy to dump our bags and head out for our first hike! Matt’s choice sounded great to our hot and dusty group, a river walk through a gorgeous canyon suitably dubbed “The Narrows”.
Where did all the mountains go?! Yeah, yeah… I know. Glaciated Ohio has never contained the ear-popping elevations of our western states. And “straighten (ing) your shoulders” just won’t pull you from under 1000 feet to an elevation that will support ponderosa pines and aspens. No geologic changes here. It’s just me, making some mental adjustments to my internal panoramic viewfinder.
This past week, I basically braked for trailheads, wildlife, scenic views and the (very) occasional gas station (with bonus points for decent restroom facilities). I kind of liked flying across ranchland, over mountains and through canyons in our rental car as we navigated from park to park. Every mile traveled revealed yet another surprise and spectacular scenery.
Utah was quite the adventure for the kids and me. We climbed enormous boulders, swam through rivers, inched up waterfalls, explored slot canyons and fended off menacing road cows (don’t ask)… We 
encountered a park fire, two hail storms and temperatures ranging from 50 -111 degrees Fahrenheit. We scanned cliffs for petroglyphs and pictographs, wandered through hoo doos and, technically, made a couple of wrong turns (although I maintain that if you have a map, it’s just an alignment issue) during our 1500 mile adventure through southern Utah.
And yes, I took a few pictures…
I’ll be sharing photos, hikes and stories from Zion, Bryce and Capitol Reef National Parks, Escalante National Memorial, and Boulder Mountain, Brian Head and Cedar Breaks, Utah in the next few weeks.
The pre-trip flurry is predictable, so what cannot be changed can at least be deemed “consistent.” This last minute “frenzy” before vacation is not for lack of preparation; it’s just the sheer volume of items that necessarily fall into the last 24 hours before departure. “Items such as visiting Grandma, dropping off Lily, watering house plants, passing on house keys, and printing our boarding passes…
And the stuff of any normal day continues, so today includes a soccer practice, an all day birthday party, client phone calls and e-mails… and emergency shoe shopping for one nameless child who assured me that he (oops) had it covered until this morning.
If it’s not shoes, it’s underwear. Or a haircut. Always.
Oh. And the grass needs cutting again. Darn…
If my smile occasionally appears a little “forced” today, it might be…, but I still consciously choose smile lines for my eventual wrinkles.
We leave tomorrow (early!), but hiking in Utah will be a wonderful adventure -so if I have to borrow one of Wednesday’s smiles to gracefully get through a Monday, I will do so with no apologies.
Lots of great photos (Zion, Bryce, the Escalades region, Capitol Reef…) and hiking adventures to come…
Ninety-three candles on a birthday cake could resemble a flaming pincushion. So we opted instead for the symbolic “nine and three” combination for Grandma this time…
Ninety-three. Remarkable. She was born in 1915 (Grandma and I do the math on a regular basis); and to the surprise of us both, it all added up to 93 years on Sunday… Her past few years have included some unscheduled challenges but she remains a lovely highlight in any day. Especially a “birth” day…
The “wish list” of a care center resident is pared down to essentials that might include visits and phone calls, photos, breath mints, and flowers to brighten the compact space. These details say, “I love you”: the core need of us all. But one of Grandma’s favorite gifts, and the one I most love to give to her, is one of the cherished memories that slip like faint dreams from her grasp. The following excerpt includes one of Grandma’s treasures:
“But she asked about Grandpa… I gave her my favorite memory from one of those final days. Of that moment in a late anonymous afternoon when Grandpa had looked up at her from his chair in the living room as she’d bustled by, her grief generating a constant momentum. “Mary,” he said with a mix of thankfulness and longing, “I’d be adrift without you…” His eyes sought the soul of his love, my grandma. She squeezed his knee and hugged him, perhaps seeing momentarily, a glimpse of her protector, lover, and life-long best friend. And I froze the moment within my heart, knowing it to be sacred.”
It’s like a favorite bedtime story. Somehow landing in both “fresh” and “familiar” at the same time. Her eyes widen with recognition, her heart leaps across her face, and she reminds me, “He was such a good man.” And I agree. And tell her how very much I love her.
It was a good birthday.
