Zion

After my first visit to Zion National Park in 2000, I left knowing I had visited the most beautiful spot on Earth.  I've been back two more times, including most recently this past September, and I still feel the same way.  There is something very special about this place and you have to be there to truly feel it.  And of course pictures do not do the place justice.

Virgin River

What makes Zion so special to me are two things: 1. You're IN the canyon.  As opposed to Bryce or the Grand Canyon where you're on top, here in Zion you are the bottom of the canyon.  It's awe inspiring being able to look up in Zion and see those towering mammoths of granite high above you.   2. The Virgin River and the oasis in the desert it provides.  Zion is located in a desert environment, and the temperatures can be sweltering there in the summer.  But thanks to the Virgin River you can take a swim and sit under the trees that surround the river.  You can easily see why settlers were attracted to this area.

What To Do

The ascent to Angels Landing

The free shuttle bus is in itself the first attraction at Zion.  For most months of the year, automobiles are barred from entering the main drive in to the park.  The shuttle ride gives you an amazing tour of the canyon with views out either window.  Of course you have to get off the bus and take a walk (especially when the buses become overcrowded and you must escape from either overly talkative tourists and/or the overpowering scent of BO).  Some key hikes are: Weeping Rocks and the Riverside Walk offer two of the easier hikes in the park.  Weeping Rocks takes you up to a rock alcove with a hanging garden and dripping water.

Hiking the Narrows

The Riverside Walk, found at the very last stop in the park, is a paved trail that takes you to the mouth of the Narrows.  The Narrows hike itself can be quite strenuous as you hike across swift moving water and step on slick, uneven rocks.  The Lower and Middle Pools hike gets you off the valley floor allowing you to walk to a series of waterfalls.  And finally, for a strenuous hike with an incredible view, the Angels Landing hike is a MUST. Just be warned - you will climb almost 1500 feet and walk on trails that have steep drop offs.  But the view is well worth the effort.

And there's nothing like ice cream and relaxing on the cool grass at the park's lodge. This is a must reward after a long day of hiking.

Springdale

A great view in Springdale

Nearby Springdale is the closest town to Zion and offers a handful or so restaurants, outdoor shops for Narrows hiking supplies, a bike shop and several stores to buy (overpriced) gifts.  The Best Western Zion Park Inn is a nice, moderately priced option for lodging.  The back patio offers a nice, commanding view of a nearby granite cliff and witnessing a sunset here is simply the best way to conclude a day at Zion.

When Vacations Attack

So I keep seeing previews for a show on Travel Channel called "When Vacations Attack", which is basically an overly-dramatic name for a show about bad stuff that happens to people while on vacation.  Looking back over the many years and many trips I've been on, I can say I've been pretty blessed with good vacation karma (except for the time my mom stepped on a sting ray and ended up having to go to the hospital...)  Two weeks ago, in a roundabout way, my anniversary vacation to St. Augustine attacked.  

Here's what happened:  After a wonderful weekend of ghost touring and beach lounging in sunny Florida, Brian and I embarked on an approximately 11 hour return trip to Nashville (which includes several hours of driving through what I've deemed "the I-75/Southern Georgia wasteland...unless you REALLY like pecans").  Long story short, we arrived home exhausted and I ended up dumping my suitcase in the middle of the living room floor rather than remove its contents and stow it in the attic.  The next morning, I wake up at 6:45 to the sound of my dad knocking on the door because he's bringing back our dogs after watching them all weekend.  I unhook the chain and suddenly I hear Brian call out, "Remember the alarm..."  So, I turn to unset the alarm, trip over my suitcase, and "OHGOD, OHGOD, OHGOD I'VE BROKEN MY WRIST!!!"  My dad busts through the front door and Brian runs out from the bedroom, look at my clearly broken and twisted wrist, and start running around like chickens with their heads cut off while I alternately bark orders and black out from my position on the floor.  "Take me to the hospital!"  "Get my flip flops!" 

I lay down in the back seat of Brian's car and start breathing like I'm going through labor (it really does help with the pain).  Walk into the ER and am the only patient there so I immediately get pumped with Dilaudid and eventually a morphine drip.  I get X-rays, and learn I'm scheduled for surgery at noon to reset my arm.  I wake up from surgery and "Holy Hell,  my right forearm and wrist is all wrapped up and I have two sets of pins sticking out from under my skin.  What is this contraption?"  I later learn this is called an external fixator and its basically pins screwed into the healthy part of the bone and held externally while my wrist heals.  It also elicits tons of sympathy and an equal amount of horrific stares in public.  Oh, and did I mention I'm right handed and the comp exams I'm required to take for graduation are scheduled in two days?  (Don't worry, I arranged to take them on the scheduled date by typing them out with my left hand using a computer in an empty office...and I passed!)

Surprise!  Hope you have a strong stomach...


Right now I'm in week three of the healing process, and have about three weeks left until the pins are removed and I start physical therapy.  For the most part, I've kept a positive attitude about it- afterall, it could be much worse, but I do get frustrated at things that I can't do on my own right now...open bags of chips, twist off bottle caps, wear long-sleeves, hold up an umbrella, shower without covering my right arm with a Kroger bag and a rubber band, etc.....But it also means I have an excuse not to cook or do dishes (which comes in really handy considering tomorrow is Thanksgiving). 

In conclusion, I leave you with this one piece of advice when traveling:  Always put away your luggage immediately after returning home, no matter how exhausted you are. 

St. Augustine

Actually this is Vilano Beach, near St. Augustine.  Taken from a recent trip to celebrate our 2nd Anniversary.  Vilano Beach is located just across the Halifax River from St. Augustine.  There were grand plans for Vilano, with a city center and other developments planned.  But the recent recession killed all of that.  A Hampton Inn & Suites was built here and I highly recommend staying here, especially if you want to be away from the "hustle & bustle" of St. Augustine.

Oasis in the Desert

Each year, Brian and I leave our work behind and spend a week exploring the U.S.  This year, we flew into Las Vegas, rented a car, and made a loop that took us through Zion National Park, the Grand Canyon, Lake Powell, Sunset Crater, and back through the Mojave desert into Las Vegas.  In the last post, Brian talked about our stay in Cliff Dwellers, Arizona, but I'd like to go back to the first day of our vacation, spent in Nevada.

 
Our first stop on this trip was Hoover Dam.  I've always wanted to see this engineering feat after seeing Chevy Chase get lost on the tour in National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation.  While we didn't do the full tour, we did enjoy walking through the dam's leaky tunnels and viewing the Generator Room.  On top of the Dam, we got to walk around in approximately 110 degree heat as I searched desperately for a water fountain.

Hoover Dam with the new bypass bridge in the background

After the Dam tour, we had some time to kill before driving over to Bootleg Canyon for our flightlines tour, so we went into the town of Boulder for some ice cream and then drove along Lake Mead, where the turquoise blue lake visually pops among its desolate, moon-like desert setting.  After a quick drive, we found our way to the flightlines office where we geared up in paragliding garb and hopped in a van that took us to the top of the mountain so that we could descend via flying through the air at approx. 75 miles per hour.  When we first got hooked up to the line and I looked down to see how far I might possibly fall to my death, I got a little nervous.....but as soon as the guide released the brakes and I went flying, all nervousness was forgotten as I was having the thrill of a lifetime.  There were a series of 4 lines that we got to go down before reaching the bottom, and each one offered a unique perspective of the canyon as the sun began to set.  In all, the tour took about two hours to complete, and after spending all that time flying through the air, we were ready to head back to the casino/hotel and pig out on our first of three (yes, three!) buffets. 

Bootleg Canyon flightlines

Modeling my flightlines gear

Stay tuned for a future post on Vegas and Valley of Fire State Park...

Get Solar Death Rayed in Vegas

Picture from Trip Advisor.
Death Ray NOT pictured.

Thanks to a fancy, curved design,  the Vdara Resort is causing a "death ray" of focused light that's terrorizing sunbathing guests at the recently opened Las Vegas hotel.  Think of the hotel as an angled magnifying glass and you, the sunbather, as the ant.  You can't make this up.

Cliff Dwellers

Here's the first of a number of posts on our recent Southwest vacation.  One of the locations we visited was the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.  I had intended for us to stay two nights at the lodge there, but I failed to book a second night.  Thankfully I discovered this before our trip, so I scrambled to find options for the second night thanks to the lodge being sold out.  I did a Google Map search for motels somewhere between the North Rim and Kingman and came up with the Cliff Dwellers Lodge in Cliff Dwellers, AZ.  Actually it's technically Marble Canyon per the US Postal Service, but the actual Marble Canyon is a good 15 minutes away.

Cliff Dwellers Lodge is one of those one-story motor lodges you see on old US highways.  Our room number was 1, and the walls were covered in wood-paneling.  Our AC had the option of turning it on or off, that's it.  The air that came out of it smelled moldy with a hint of ham.  Thankfully though it actually cooled the room down.  In fact it became so cold that my wife slept in jeans and a flannel shirt.  The shower was a stand-up stall that didn't allow for you to bend over to pick up the soap.  The water heater was conveniently in the bathroom just in case you get some sort of comfort from that sort of thing.   It was exactly the kind of place I would normally not spend the night in (although Jessica claimed to love its quaintness and retro-factor).  In some ways we probably should have feared for our lives, however thanks to Trip Advisor we knew a pretty decent number of people had stayed there and no one mentioned being ax murdered to death.

The Vermilion Cliffs frame the Lodge.

The highlight was the restaurant.  The food was delicious and there was a good crowd for dinner.  I love hot food and the waiter brought me a cup of chopped habaneros with my fajitas.  Awesome.  The Lodge is the starting point for a rafting company that runs the Grand Canyon starting in nearby Marble Canyon.  So there were lots of conversations about rafting, waves and such.  Roaming around the grounds was TJ, a 17 year-old dog who knows how to beg for his food.  He was clearly hit by a car (if not a truck or both) at some point in his life as he had a noticeable limp.  And that night the stars were out in full view.

Remaining walls of a cliff dwelling.

Also nearby were a series of ruins and homes built in to the rocks giving the area it's name.  During the day you can find people selling Native American jewelry and other items.  In a future post I'll talk about nearby Marble Canyon and Lee's Ferry.  Both should be visited when you're in the area.  If you need a decent place to spend the night, and want a great place to eat, definitely check out Cliff Dweller's Lodge.

There's literally nothing around you in Cliff Dweller's. 

To see more photos from our trip in higher resolution, please visit my Flickr page which you can access on the right side of our blog.

Wild, Wild West

Brian and I just returned from a week and a half long vacation out West and can't wait to share the details of our trip in upcoming posts.  This evening, however, finds us sitting on the couch trying to decompress from today's three and a half hour flight from Vegas to Nashville.  I was lucky enough to sit next to a woman who decided to bring and devour an oh-so-aromatic (read: stinky) salad on the plane, and Brian was lucky enough to forget his brand new camera on the plane.  Luckily he realized he left it before the plane took off, but he had to get a special pass and go back through security to retrieve it while I was left to wrangle all our baggage.  Good times.  So.....for now, I leave you with this photo taken from the parking garage of the Las Vegas Stratosphere.  Viva Las Vegas!

Don't worry, mom and dad- I didn't heed his message.