The weather in Zion National Park is very peculiar. We
always wake up in the freezing cold, exacerbated by the harsh winds. The sun
will usually rise around 7:30am, but it won’t actually shine down into the
canyon until about 10:00, at which point things start warming up and the wind
dies down. Day time temperatures will easily get up to about 70 degrees Fahrenheit
at this time of year.
We got to work on Wednesday morning at 9:00am with Ranger
Alex, who showed us how to repair Zion’s Green Fleet of bicycles. These bikes
are used by park rangers and employees as alternatives to automobiles to make
short jaunts around the park and into the adjacent town of Springdale. That
morning, we made sure that their fleet of about twenty-five bikes was running
strong for the upcoming season. We finished this work around 11:00am, at which
point we went back to camp and had another excellent PB&J lunch.
After lunch, we drove to the trailhead of Angel’s Landing,
one of the parks most strenuous, dangerous, and steepest-climbing trails. It
took us over an hour of hiking up through the mountainous switchbacks,
including the tiring Walter’s Wiggles, before we got to Scout’s Landing; that
was the easy part. After nabbing some pictures from the scenic Scout’s, we
proceeded on to Angel’s Landing. That’s where the smooth rock trail turned into
roughly –carved steps along the ominous side of a cliff. The sandy “trail” was
lined with chains from this point, and not grasping them the whole way to the
top would be an act of foolishness. Six people have died on this mountain since
2004; the term “strenuous” isn’t tossed around lightly here. That’s why I
called it quits at Scout’s. I perched myself on a comfortable rock and enjoyed a
relaxing nap for a couple hours while the team went to the top. I don’t regret
a single thing, though; my fear of heights would have had me scared to death
the whole way.
Back at camp that afternoon, several from our group went to
wash their hair. My quarter-inch long hair needed little attention, so I found
another rock to nap on. We left camp at about 5:00pm, making the hour-long
drive into the town of St. George to eat at In-N-Out Burger. In-N-Out is among
the country’s best fast food joints, but can only be found on the west coast,
so we took full advantage of our close proximity to one. As we ate our burgers
and grilled cheese, we hummed happy birthday to Sam B., who turned 22 today.
On the drive back that evening, we stopped at a supermarket
in Springdale, where Megan, Sam B., and Jaden decided that my nickname for this
trip would be Reptile. This was given for my keen ability to seek out and nap
upon comfortable canyon rocks. It’s quite a difficult task, but with so many
cozy rocks in the park, I gladly took this one for the team. That night around
the campfire, we enjoyed delicious S’mores and popcorn as we went around the
circle and gave everyone in the group a fitting nickname. My nickname was refined
to Reptar, and our site leaders, Sam B. and Megan, were given Papa Bear and
Mama Bear. Sam C., appropriately, became Mini Bear. Emily was Smokey Bunny,
Julia was Shutterbug, and Trevor was Ranger Shaggy. Andrew was the Mayor, Jaden
was Moon Beam, and Caleb was Barnacle Bill.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
ReplyDeleteDay 3
Wednesday was our short workday→ bike repair day. The green fleet is the small fleet of bicycles the park owns and suggests the rangers ride to save gas from being used unnecessarily for short rides. The day began absolutely freezing! (as usual) and continued to be until the sun finally came into the canyon. The cold was too much for me, I had to keep moving constantly, always blowing on my hands rubbing my arms and sort of hopping in place- I think I did this every day, but I remember it especially on this day. Anyways, our job was to prepare the bikes by going through a short checklist of things to make sure came with the bike (such as working lights and a helmet), oil the chain, and pump up the tires. After all that extremely tiresome and exhausting work we were forced to do the terrible task of test riding these bikes around a short scenic loop. :D It was by far my favorite workday of the week. The whole time, the group got good photos of each other, joked around- we basically just had a grand ole’ time together.
The afternoon plans consisted of putting our lives in God’s hands on the hike of a lifetime. It wasn’t that extreme, but this hike did have a serious scare factor to it. In the beginning the trail was paved, which was honestly a little disappointing. But then we got to a cave, took a group photo in a little cave with our Jayhawk poking out of a small hole and it was all better. After the cave was the best-named trail I have ever encountered- Walter’s Wiggles ☺. This section was a series of short switchbacks going up a nearly vertical face leading to summit 1. This place was soooooooo high. The cars on the road looked like bugs. Still we traveled higher, crossing to the crazy part of the trail. Here I suggest you stop reading and look up Angel’s Landing, Zion on Google Images because my words will not do the perilous trail justice. We went on sloped, slush-covered rock, holding on to chains as our last lifeline, our only chance of writing about our experiences, while 1500-foot drops are inches from where we planted our feet.
The best part of the whole week come next, we went to In-N-Out Burger and Del Taco. I would normally be excited about this because, I mean come on, its In-N-Out, but this trip was especially amazing. This is because my group mates were mostly vegetarian so we ate vegetarian all week, and I am about as close to a carnivore as people can get. I took the opportunity to get probably a dangerous amount of food from these two lovely places that will forever hold a special place in my heart. On the way back we made a stop at the Virgin Tradepost, looked at a bunch of weird stuff and were stalked by a guard chicken and found either animal farm or Michael Jackson’s secret hideaway. There’s no way to explain this so I just won’t
The campfire and group bonding after this amazing hike/food day was incredible- this is partly due to the hike but mostly because our groups diversity in personalities worked so freakin well, it was awesome.
Oh yeah, and we got nicknames that night.
Minibear out.