Zion 1

here is a somewhat abridged account of my time in Zion.  there was really no internet there that i could use so it didn't leave me with much incentive to write something up every day or so but this is about how it went.

first of all, just approaching st. george (nearby city with the interstate exit) is impressive.  i don't know how to say it because i know i described canyon country as massive so this is massiver?  anyways, it's big.  as you move towards Zion all these huge hills start closing in a bit more until you are driving along the Virgin River which has helped shape this landscape.  coming off the interstate you pass through a handful of towns, each getting progressively smaller.  the 3rd and 2nd are really just a collection of houses along the highway that range from well structured brick buildings with manicured lawns to shotgun shacks made out of plywood and forfeited ambition.

the city that buttresses the park is called springdale.  now all of my following week at Zion is going to be seen through the eyes of my experience that i just had in Moab/Arches/Canyonlands.  having said that, i don't think it means my impressions are necessarily wrong, just that certain things seemed more noticeable.

springdale was the quaintest little tourist trap i've ever been in.  good for them that they didn't have ANY fast food chains or big box store type places.  even their markets were locally owned and maintained.  but the town was still littered with trinket shops and t-shirt shops and gem shops and all of the other kitschy junk people buy.  moab seemed to cater to all the outdoors type folk who wanted to bike/climb/4x4/trek their way throughout the area.  springdale is very much set up as an RV city.

before leaving moab i stopped by the visitor center for free internet and downloaded some BLM maps of the land surrounding Zion.  the area showed pretty promising dispersed camping (ie. just camp anywhere) so i figured that i'd save some money and get some privacy at the same time.  theory and practice are very different though and even though i was half looking, i did not see any suitable place to set up camp in the 20 miles preceding the national park.

i entered the park sometime late in the day and got camping info from them.  the girl behind the desk said that they never really have anyone ask about BLM camping and she didn't know if there was any.  she also told me that all the sites in the camp were full and like to stay that way.  i panicked and decided to purchase myself one of the last tent sites just a mile outside the park.  the cost: $30.  the site was suitable in its own right but it was clear they had eked every foot out of the area to get more sites and there was a helluva a lot of sites, most RV.  i wasn't too upset though cause i figured i'd be free camping soon.  the place was also supposed to have internet!  which was down.

the next day i saw that all my neighbors were staying at their sites and knowing the place was full i didn't want to leave only to end up having to stay at a pay site 15 miles up the road so i shelled out another $30.  i spent the rest of the day between small hikes in Zion and driving up and down the road and eventually finding a site on public land that would suit my needs.

i'd never been to a park that has a shuttle service before but apparently numerous national parks are adopting this practice thanks to the success that it has had at Zion, the park of its inception.  i understand the purpose of it, i understand that it is useful, i understand it is low impact, and i understand that the park truly couldn't function without it.  that doesn't mean i have to like it.

Zion attracts 2.5 million visitors each year which makes it the 7th or 8th most visited national park.  there is absolutely no parking for these people.  that means a shuttle system.

the result is that instead of feeling like you're visiting a natural area set aside for preservation you feel like you're commuting in a city, and in a way you kind of are.  each shuttle has two cars which are almost always full enough that people need to stand in the aisle.  the shuttle makes 8 stops.  each of these stops offers up 1 or 2 trailheads.  this means that you are hiking the same trail at the same time as another entire shuttle load of people.  now one could always wait a bit for the crowd to thin out and then head off but the shuttles run about every 10 minutes.  so, while "hiking" through an admittedly beautiful area you are constantly passing/being passed/jockeying for position to allow someone through a narrow area.

i'm certain things would have been very different if i had done one of the 7 or 8 hour hikes but honestly i just didn't think i'd make it.  most of the longer and less populated hikes have places with warnings of "sheer cliffsides" and there is an audio message on the bus saying that if you are afraid of heights: don't go, if someone in your party feels uncomfortable: turn back,  yes: there have been numerous fatalities here.
over the years i've done pretty well acclimating myself to my fear of heights but i still get vertigo if i've nothing to steady myself on which means these hikes weren't happening for me.  and that sucks because they sound fucking awesome.

ok; so that's all the negative stuff about the park, i needed to get that out of the way so that when i make reference to things later on there is context.  now onto the fun happy stuff!

the place is beautiful.  so much so that in an very large area with similar features of beauty, this was the place set aside as the gemstone worth preserving.  there is a reason it gets 2.5 million people a year.  there is also a reason it has a bunch of impressive names like "zion" attributed to it by crazy religious people.  the place stands out.

here's the view from Zion's parking lot:

over my time in the area i hiked many trails, some notable, others not.  here i'll make note of the notable ones.

Emerald Pools
one of the most famous and most accessible hikes in the park.  i personally found the pools themselves rather dull and not very emerald colored at all, but i'm sure that during the right season they are really spectacular.  also i'm unfairly comparing it to this:

guatamala

and though the pools were a bit oversold it was still very cool.  a small stream that has occasional flashfloods has carved out a canyon by leaving behind harder rock and carrying away softer rock (this will be a common theme) and the result is a series of waterfalls with pools on the harder rock layer above them.  the emerald pools have 3 pools, each higher than the last.  here's a few pictures of the first waterfall, it's kinda hard to see because right now the stream isn't running fast.

a picture of the pool sustaining the waterfall:

the view:

the waterfall from a distance:

random shots from the trail:

 the virgin river cutting through Zion Canyon:

that's it for right now, more to come with less talking/complaining and many more pictures.

oh yeah, i got to see cedar trees again and i missed them a lot when living abroad.  here's a reference that probably only rob will get - "well, well looks like we got ahselves a cedah."