Today was a complicated day of amazing vistas and great frustrations!
We met Hilary at 7:30 on a chilly morning and walked over to Porter's Restaurant where we get our complimentary breakfast. There was a line and the restaurant was full, but we moved up quickly and soon had a table and enjoyed huge breakfasts of omelets, and a chicken-fried steak for Bob!
We drove up to the Zion entrance station and waited in line to show our Golden Age Passports behind an enormous camper which had to be checked with a measuring tape to see if it would fit through the mile-long tunnel on Beehive 9. We wanted to take Hilary to the Visitor Center to get an overview of the park, but the huge parking lot was Full!! People must have come up in the dark and waited until the center opened. We left the lot and Hilary drove us east on Beehive 9 which continues through the park. We followed a camper through the tunnel which straddled the center line and managed not to hit the stone walls. The tunnel was constructed in the 30’s, back when they did thing correctly, and it actually has windows carved into the walls at intervals with amazing views that you can glimpse as you whisk by!
We approached the east park entry and found the trailhead for the East Rim trail with available parking. We pulled in and loaded up our gear and took off. The east side isn’t as spectacular as the west, but we were mostly alone on the trail and could stop and ID wildflowers and enjoy the views, butterflies, and lizards.
We wished our geologist friend, Craig, were with us to tell us about all the geological wonders we were seeing! We continued for a couple of miles, and returned to the car around noon.
Rabbit Brush 
Broom Groundsel
We thought Hilary should see Zion Canyon which contains a major side road that we really enjoyed back in 2002 when I was last in Zion. 
View through Hil's moon roof
The park service bans traffic from this narrow winding road and makes visitors take shuttle buses up the canyon, which can be picked up at the Visitor Center. They have also added a shuttle to the Visitor Center which can be picked up from several locations along Beehive 9 through Springdale. So we returned to our hotel, parked, and caught one of the Brown buses which delivered us back, crammed full of passengers after several stops, to the Visitor Center. We then changed to a Green bus, packed on and it drove us up Zion Canyon. It stopped in several places for various hikes, but we stayed on until the end of the ride at a trail to the Narrows. Zion Canyon has been carved out by the Virgin River with huge steep red/orange walls. The Narrows is where the river enters a narrow slot.
The trail is paved, easy, but was absolutely packed with people! In the 1.1 miles to the end Bob estimated about 800 people moving in the two directions along the trail! We couldn't stop to admire the views, look at the ferns and mosses in the seeps dripping down the walls. The areas around the trail are stamped into dust by too many feet. Everyone was well-mannered and friendly, but in that concentration, overwhelming and frustrating! Granted we are here in mid October, after the summer heat and before the winter cold, but even with the Park staffs’ best efforts, we found it impossible to enjoy! Thank goodness for our pleasant morning hike!
Crowded Trail!
We got back to the Visitors’ Center at 4 PM, looked around and then stood in a long line for the return buses to Springdale. We got on the second bus, and had a very amusing driver who cheered us up! Back at the hotel we recovered on our adjoining patios. Hil, in addition to being a great driver, had stocked her car with a cooler full of cokes, tonic, limes, gin and rum!! We had cocktails and crackers and planned our dinner destination.
We went to the nearby attractive Camp Outpost Restaurant. Bob and I ordered Saratoga roast pork on cheese grits and a bed of kale - just fantastic! - and Hil had a pork sandwich. Back at the Bumbleberry Inn we stopped at the shop/ice creamery and found room for cones. Finally bumbleberries in ice cream! 
Great dinner 
Ice Cream!
No comments:
Post a Comment