I had couple of weeks of "Use it or Loose it" vacation days from work and was wondering where to go. One of my colleagues at work quickly filled my empty mind with this grand idea of road tripping in Utah. Within days he poured in tons of advice and guide books and I was also picking brains from Trip Advisor experts. Everything fell in place and my vacation started with a quick trip to Los Angeles visiting my awesome friends. I had a blast playing with their new born baby and was deeply touched by their unconditional affection towards me. After parting good-byes I flew into Las Vegas where I rented my 4WD and picked up two weeks worth of food supplies at local Whole foods store. Spent the night at a motel outside of the strip and woke up early and was raring to head out on this solo adventure.
Made a quick stop at Hoover dam and was shocked to see the lowest water levels I'd seen in the area.
I wanted to get to Zion National park asap and driving on empty interstate 15 made it easier.
Arrived at the park by 1:30 pm and bought the "America Beautiful National Park annual Pass". I knew this was $80 well spent as I plan to visit few more national parks next spring.
Zion Scenic Drive / Emerald's pool
Drove on the beautiful Zion Scenic drive from the visitor center all the way to Temple of Sinawawa. I had two more hours of daylight and quickly switched to running shoes and ran Emerald's pool trail. Lower and Middle pool trails are easiest to run but the altitude kicked my butt. I was in no hurry so took my time to run to middle pool and then hiked up upper Emeralds pool.
Gorgeous scenery but it was too dark/cloudy and not a good day for photographs. As I was coming down I met few more local trail runners who had a sorry look on their face when I told I'm from New Jersey :) . Damn.. Flatlanders never have it easy.Just after sunset temps were dropping below freezing and there were no sign of any tents at campgrounds. I decided to spend the next four nights at Bumbleberry Inn at Springdale which was couple of miles away from West Entrance of the park.
Observation Point Trail
Next morning I drove to the Weeping Trail parking lot around 8:30 am and I was the only one there. It was not cold but was raining. Park ranger said there might be snow up the mountain. I was in two minds whether or not to do the observation point considering the weather conditions. Within minutes I was joined by another solo hiker and we decided to go for it. I'm super thrilled that we decided to do the hike. Words like Stunning & spectacular doesn't do justice to this hike. As we started hiking it continued to rain. I was impressed how quickly we were gaining elevation. After a mile or so it stopped raining and sun was trying to break through the clouds. We took some amazing pictures at the narrow section of the canyons. Soon the visibility of the main canyon including Angel's landing started to improve and we stopped at will and took ton of pictures. Our timing was perfect as weather and visibility went downhill after that...
It started snowing little after the halfway point( after cable mountain spur) and quickly we were climbing up by dragging our feet on couple of inches of snow. scenes of snow heavily falling on the canyon midst thick clouds was unreal. After about 2 hour 30 minutes or so we made it finally to the observation point. It got windy, cold and snow was pounding like crazy. We stopped and snacked for a bit. I'm so sad we couldn't take any pictures up there. After 10-15 minutes we decided to descend down as we were not sure how the weather is going to turn out. After a mile or so we saw three more brave souls hiking the trail. For next two miles it was quite slippery and we were super careful watching each step. By the time we reached half way point snow started to thin out and things were visible again.
Thoroughly enjoyed rest of the hike and we saw few more hikers going up. Coming down was lot quicker and we were done in about 1 hour 20 minutes or so. Wrapped up this mind-blowing experience in 4 hours. I was sore, exhausted and slept wondering whether I can survive 2 more weeks of hike-run fest.
Coral pink Sand dunes was a neat place for a short visit. Tried running barefoot in the sand but my toes were freezing in 30 seconds. Wandered on the sand for 20-30 minutes and left the park heading north-east towards Bryce.
Its unbelievable how time flies when you are having so much fun. Bumbleberry Inn was just about ok. I wish they fix up the electrical outlets. They should know tourists these days travel with lot of gadgets which require overnight charging. Bathroom sink is not the place to charge the laptop :( . On the other hand I loved the restaurants around Springdale. Meme's cafe and Cafe Soleil were both outstanding places to eat.
Life Elevated Part 2 - Hoodoos & Basins
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| Courtesy Google Images |
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| Quick stop at Hoover dam. |
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| "Elevated" is the keyword there |
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| woohoo !! . Goosebumps |
Zion Scenic Drive / Emerald's pool
Drove on the beautiful Zion Scenic drive from the visitor center all the way to Temple of Sinawawa. I had two more hours of daylight and quickly switched to running shoes and ran Emerald's pool trail. Lower and Middle pool trails are easiest to run but the altitude kicked my butt. I was in no hurry so took my time to run to middle pool and then hiked up upper Emeralds pool.
Gorgeous scenery but it was too dark/cloudy and not a good day for photographs. As I was coming down I met few more local trail runners who had a sorry look on their face when I told I'm from New Jersey :) . Damn.. Flatlanders never have it easy.Just after sunset temps were dropping below freezing and there were no sign of any tents at campgrounds. I decided to spend the next four nights at Bumbleberry Inn at Springdale which was couple of miles away from West Entrance of the park.
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| On the Emeralds pool trail |
Observation Point Trail
Next morning I drove to the Weeping Trail parking lot around 8:30 am and I was the only one there. It was not cold but was raining. Park ranger said there might be snow up the mountain. I was in two minds whether or not to do the observation point considering the weather conditions. Within minutes I was joined by another solo hiker and we decided to go for it. I'm super thrilled that we decided to do the hike. Words like Stunning & spectacular doesn't do justice to this hike. As we started hiking it continued to rain. I was impressed how quickly we were gaining elevation. After a mile or so it stopped raining and sun was trying to break through the clouds. We took some amazing pictures at the narrow section of the canyons. Soon the visibility of the main canyon including Angel's landing started to improve and we stopped at will and took ton of pictures. Our timing was perfect as weather and visibility went downhill after that...
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| This pic doesn't do justice to the view. Wish weather was better |
It started snowing little after the halfway point( after cable mountain spur) and quickly we were climbing up by dragging our feet on couple of inches of snow. scenes of snow heavily falling on the canyon midst thick clouds was unreal. After about 2 hour 30 minutes or so we made it finally to the observation point. It got windy, cold and snow was pounding like crazy. We stopped and snacked for a bit. I'm so sad we couldn't take any pictures up there. After 10-15 minutes we decided to descend down as we were not sure how the weather is going to turn out. After a mile or so we saw three more brave souls hiking the trail. For next two miles it was quite slippery and we were super careful watching each step. By the time we reached half way point snow started to thin out and things were visible again.
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| Icy switchbacks |
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| Can you see switchbacks midst snow clutter ? |
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| Winter wonderland after climbing 2100 ft from the parking lot |
Angel's Landing
It was day 3 at Zion and I hiked the Angel's landing. Hike to Scout's lookout did not feel tiresome at all.
Probably because Observation point was harder. After that I knew it was a tossup of several factors. My comfort level, snow / ice etc... I started going up the chains to make it to the top. After climbing few chains I noticed ice and slush and it was making me ridiculously uncomfortable. I saw one other girl trying to hike with a running sneakers almost slipped.. I listened to my instincts and climbed back. I'll probably do it another time when weather and my courage permits..
Overall a great hike and some awesome views from Scout's lookout. I felt Observation point was way better as you go 500 ft higher than AL. Upon returning to the parking lot, I noticed I had little extra time so I hiked the Hidden canyon. It was bit scary at places too.. Felt satisfied and exhausted and returned to hotel by 4 pm.
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| Farthest tree you see is as far I climbed... Yikes |
Zion Narrows ( Bottom up hike )
Day 4 morning I drove to Zion Adventure company to rent the gear to hike the narrows and hooked up with bunch of hikers along the way. We hiked little further than Wall St and returned just before sunset. I cannot describe the experience in words. It truly was a magical hike.. Water temperature was in 50s and air temp around 38 or so. It was perfect and the dry suit didn't let a single drop of water in my body. All I could think about was to return back to this place and do the Top down hike one day..
Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park
Final morning at Zion I woke up nice and early ate some awesome Crepe wrap at Meme's cafe, Grabbed few food supplies at Sol's market and it was almost time to say good bye to Zion. Started driving east on 9 towards Coral pink Sand dunes park. Took some amazing pictures of Snow covered peaks, Mesa Checkerboard before exiting the park.
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| Magical Narrows.. Can't wait to do Top down hike |
Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park
Final morning at Zion I woke up nice and early ate some awesome Crepe wrap at Meme's cafe, Grabbed few food supplies at Sol's market and it was almost time to say good bye to Zion. Started driving east on 9 towards Coral pink Sand dunes park. Took some amazing pictures of Snow covered peaks, Mesa Checkerboard before exiting the park.
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| Spectacular drive on highway 9 |
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| Checkerboard Mesa |
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| I ran barefoot for like 30 seconds before my toes started freezing.. |
Life Elevated Part 2 - Hoodoos & Basins
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