Zion: Day 1

Monday, March 19, 2012

On Sunday, we drove into Zion from Arches National Park, where we spent an eventful night, to say the least. Rolling into Arches at about midnight on Sunday, we had plans to pitch our tents at an open campsite, but the 60 mile-per-hour winds quickly erased those optimistic thoughts. Instead, we spent the night in our cars, where we slept very restlessly until sunrise when we were greeted by a park ranger. Sleeping in your car overnight in a National Park’s parking lot is not allowed, but Sam B. smoothly explained to her that we showed up early at the trailhead for a brisk morning hike. This was partially truthful, as we then proceeded to spend our morning hiking among the majestic arches after which the park is named. Around noon, we loaded up and finished the last five-hour leg of the trip to Zion. After pitching the tents and getting settled, a large group of German students at an adjacent campsite generously gave us two tents, two sleeping bags, three sleeping pads, five air mattresses, a huge tarp, several stakes, and a couple other niceties that we would put to use. Apparently, their past few cold, windy, and snowy nights in the tents were somewhat miserable, so they were leaving to stay in the Zion lodge. They couldn’t take any of their gear back to Germany with them later in the week, so it was ours. How excellent.

We woke up on Monday morning to bitter cold weather. Unfortunately, I didn’t previously realize that my sleeping bag no longer fit my entire body, so I was struggling to stay warm within it. Thanks to Caleb, our warm oatmeal breakfast improved things immensely. At about 8:30am, Ranger Mattie rolled up to our campsite, and had some pretty interesting stories to tell about the park. He was a hoot to work with throughout the day, and had us laughing quite a bit. Ranger Jessica, Zion’s volunteer coordinator, showed up at 9:00, and the two of them explained our work for the day. We would be wrapping paper strips around the trunks of the campground’s cottonwood trees. Later on, the strips would be “painted” with caramel-like goo to prevent tent caterpillars from invading the trees and spinning harmful webs around them. This work took all morning and much of the early afternoon, but we covered all of the trees in the Watchman campground, the South campground, and the area surrounding the Visitor’s Center. Although the work was difficult with our numb latex-gloved hands in the morning freeze, it became much more bearable as the day warmed up after our PB&J lunch. It also helped that Trevor, Emily, and I had an efficient routine going by that point. Before the day’s work was done, we had our first wildlife spotting when a large family of deer crossed the road into the campground we were in, coming as close as twenty feet from us. A few gophers also poked their heads out at us while we worked.

After our work for the day ended around 3:00pm, we went on the park’s scenic drive, a twisty mountain road up through the canyon and along the cliffs. We got excellent photos, and had a great time seeing the park from this road. When we got back to camp, we spent several hours trying to light the coals that would cook our cowboy dinners. Although we didn’t end up eating until about 7pm, it was well worth the wait, as the vegetables were cooked perfectly and deliciously within the foil. We then sat around a warm campfire, singing along to Julia’s, Trevor’s, and Sam C.’s excellently strummed guitar melodies and playing various campfire games. What an awesome way to end the day.