“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…
A friend was horrified to learn our summer vacation plans. You’d think I had confessed we’d be spending the week cleaning out the basement (which we need to do) or identifying and polishing our hodgepodge of tools and hardware items! She’s headed to total indulgence on the Pacific coast. Which sounds lovely. Shore vacations slow the pace to where family members can recalibrate connections, within and amongst themselves. I love the beach and the soothing sounds of the surf… It’s just that my oldest will be a junior this fall, and I feel the need to extend his experience beyond the sand this year. So… We’re headed to Utah.
SIDENOTE: A week after I finalized flight plans, I found out that Matt had informed his class that Mom was taking him to “Vegas” for his summer vacation. Funny one, Matt. I fine-tuned it a little, “We’re FLYING into Las Vegas, Matt. Then we’re DRIVING to Utah.” I don’t even bother to explain things to Matt’s teachers anymore. I gave that up after he announced in second grade that I took “drugs” (antibiotics!). I figure I’m in the classroom and on enough field trips that the other parents have plenty of opportunities to observe me for odd tics and nervous behavior. And Matt is still getting invited to plenty of birthday parties, so we must check out OK…
Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef… We have the basics in place so that we can explore the twisting canyons and cliffs as curiosity leads. It will be hot, so we’ll do a lot of stream hiking, splashing our way to cooling waterfalls. We seem to hike better when there are boulders and barriers to climb over and water to fall into. The kids get tired on the easy trails but beg for more when the trail stretches ahead like an obstacle course. There should be plenty of the right kinds of challenges for us on this trip.
A camping trip through Bryce and Zion National Parks some thirty years ago with my own family etched permanent pictures into an impressionable mind. It’s time to return there with my own children. Southern Utah is a vast and inspiring blend of playground and vista. My biggest challenge so far is to not load the itinerary with every park in the area. But the goal of this trip is to introduce, not to conquer…
Because you can’t carry every book out of the library with one visit. Instead, you leave with an armload, knowing you’ll be back again to discover more.
