Bairnhess RV Adventures: Zion - The Promised Land

Provo, UT September 19 - 20, 2013

We drove out of Idaho and down through Utah to Provo for an overnight stop over on our way to Zion National Park. We had no idea how large Salt Lake City is; the suburbs and traffic go on for miles and miles. We made it to the Lakeside RV park which was near Utah lake in the small town of Provo which turns out is another suburb of Salt Lake City. We were surprised by a neighbor with a newer version of Suni! It was so fun. We met the Shields from Tyler, TX who had just bought their 2014 Sanibel. We toured each other's homes and noted the differences, which were minimal and mainly decorative.

Look.... twins! We are the ones on the left.

Zion National Park September 20 - 25, 2013

We drove the rest of the way to Springdale, UT the little town just outside the southern entrance gate to Zion. Zion Canyon RV park is a fairly small park with mostly tent sites at the base of one of the beautiful red sandstone peaks right on the Virgin River. We backed our huge home right next to a tent city. It felt kind of weird to be sitting with our A/C blowing, watching TV while everyone else was sitting outside around a campfire. There was very little grass areas for the dogs, but they had the river to play in.

The view from our front door. This is what 2 million years of erosion looks like. All these cool cliffs were carved out of the once flat Colorado Plateau by the Virgin River and its tributaries.

Great campground!

Love that water.

Zion is set up much differently from other NP's we have been to in that there is a required shuttle that takes you to the different viewpoints and trailheads, no cars allowed. The Springdale shuttle picks us up right in front of our park and takes us to the visitor center where we pick up the Zion park shuttle. There is an informational guide explaining everything you are seeing from the shuttle all of the way up the canyon. We explored the visitor center and rode the shuttle all of the way to the end to get a feel for the park. There are so many hikes available we had a hard time choosing which ones to attempt, but we decided on the two most famous hikes: The Narrows and Angel's Landing.

T-Shirt meant for Peg!

The Narrows starts with a one mile easy hike along the river which leads to a narrow canyon. From there the "trail" is the flowing river. So we plunged into the chilly water and hiked up the river. At different times during the year this could require swimming, but now it is only about knee deep in most places. The current is still pretty strong so it is slow going, but really fun. We didn't make it all of the way to the end of the Narrows, but went for an hour and then turned around and hiked back. We noticed a lot of people brought a change of shoes which is a really good idea - one we wish we had thought of.

Hi mom! This one's for you :) These guys would have freaked you out. We saw them climbing up peoples backpacks, yes they were still wearing them, as they were sitting down to rest on benches and walls.

The start of the Narrows

The "Narrows" is a slot canyon produced by the Virgin river cutting its way through the hard and resistant Navajo Sandstone. The red color is due to iron being present in the original sand before it was buried, compacted and cemented together by underground fluids that turned the sediment to stone.

Not too deep but beautiful

In addition to the shuttle there is the Zion - Mt Carmel Highway which goes through a man-made tunnel too small for Suni and barely big enough for the BAT. The tunnel has two lanes only 7 feet 10 inches wide. In fact we had to toggle the mirrors in on the BAT to meet the width requirement, with mirrors in we are 7 feet 2 inches wide. We were up close and personal with the tunnel walls! The tunnel is over a mile long and has a few skylights along the way - really cool. The tunnel then opens to the west side of the park which has a completely different look and feel. The east side is all about the canyon and erosion by the river; the west side has been eroded by rain, wind and snow. We contemplated making the 160 mile drive to the north rim of the Grand Canyon, but decided to head back and take a walking tour of Springdale instead. Peg had a great time wandering through a rock shop.

Blasting started in 1927 and was completed in 1930. At the time it was considered an engineering miracle. She was built for the Ford Model T not the Ford F350!

Back during the age of dinosaurs, Jurassic period, Zion was covered by large sand dunes. North America was only 10-30 degrees north of the equator (think license plate....Pangea). The sand was deposited in an ancient sandy desert environment very similar to the Sahara Desert of today. The lines in this "sand dune" show the direction that the Jurassic winds were blowing during deposition.

This is called a "checkerboard mesa". The horizontal lines are called "crossbedding", they represent layers of wind-blown sand that built up into sand dunes. The dunes were buried, and the sand grains glued together by calcite to form sandstone. The vertical lines are less common. They are shallow cracks that result from stress and erosion on the rock surface. They are most commonly caused by expansion and contraction during seasonal temperature changes, wetting/drying etc... The white color is due to a lack of iron in the sediment or what little iron that was present was unable to react with oxygen to produce the "rust" color.

Another tunnel, but this one shows the chisel marks.

Zion is know as an example of the finest "fossilized" wind-deposited sand dunes in the world.

We saved our last day to attempt the hike to Angel's Landing. This is a 5.4 mile hike with a 1500 feet change in elevation with the last 1/2 mile along a steep, narrow ridge to the summit. It clearly states that this hike is not for anyone fearful of heights. We were concerned about that last 1/2 mile which is really more of a climb than a hike with chains in some areas to hold onto, but the first two miles are no piece of cake either. There is one section called Walters Wiggles which are very steep switchbacks - oh my. Once past the switchbacks there is a little plateau called Scout Lookout which has great views of the canyon and is the spot where most people stop. Peg decides she wants to go ahead which for those of you who don't know is a huge feat since she is deathly afraid of heights. We start up the climb hanging onto the chain and waiting on tiny ledges for the people coming back down to pass us by so we can continue our journey upward. After the first set of chains there is a steep incline to hike over with a severe drop off and no chain to hold onto - Peg decides to wait it out here along with a number of other people. One girl was heard saying "who would even design a trail like this". I forged ahead determined to get to the top. It was the longest half mile of my life. I used Virginia's mantra the whole time "one hand for the boat" or in this case one hand for the rock or chain at all times. The view from the top was truly amazing; almost as amazing as my sense of accomplishment. I am still sore three days later. The climb down was no picnic either. We made it back down to Scouts Landing to find our backpack had been invaded by a chipmunk looking for our snack.... chewed through the pack and my favorite sweatshirt to get to an apple! Pesky little fellow - so much for not feeding the wildlife.