Zion National Park! June 25-27

Last weekend was amazing – almost too good to put into words. But I’ll give it a shot.

Friday I got off work and drove to St. George straight away. I arrived about 4 hours after my start time at our hotel, a La Quinta. I called Chase to find out where he was because we incidentally timed it so we would be there at the same time only to find out that about 30 miles out of UT he hit a deer! Don’t worry, it’s ok, he wasn’t hurt. His car definitely took a beating tho, with the front passenger side of his car dented in. He even got some deer blood and hair as a souvenir! So right when he got to St. George we went to the police station so he could get a police report for an insurance claim. Afterwards we went to the Player’s Grill for dinner, which was one of the first restaurants we happened upon. We weren’t very picky about where to eat after 9pm. Then we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep after a long day for both of us.

Saturday we rose early (thanks to our internal clocks, which in turn thank our respective jobs) and ate breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Chase was pretty excited about his sourdough French toast, and I have to say my blueberry strudel French toast was delish! We drove around until the climbing store, the Desert Rat, was open at 9am. Chase bought me a climbing harness and shoes (thanks!!) and we headed back to check the climbing gear before we took it out for the weekend. After we got to Zion, we decided to leave the climbing gear and just hike for the day. Chase chose our route – the Narrows! Zion was gorgeous with all that red sandstone. All the rock formations had interesting names like the Court of the Patriarchs, Angel’s Landing and the Temple of Sinowava, complete with altar and pulpit. We started our hike on the Riverside Walk then straight into the Virgin River into the Narrows. I can’t even put into words how gorgeous this was! We literally spent a majority of our 5 hour hike in the Virgin River, which was pretty awesome. The water was fairly cold (reminded me of Rapid Creek!) and the hike was challenging in that we were always battling the current and had unsure footing on the rock bottom. The water varied anywhere from ankle height to waist deep. This was the perfect hike for the day as it was a pretty hot day and the canyon and the water kept us cool. We were going to hike Angel’s Landing, on top of the canyon, but I’m glad we didn’t. We would have been much more beat than we were already! After we got out of the canyon we drove the 45 minutes back to St. George and our hotel to get cleaned up for dinner. We ate dinner at Chili’s but I wasn’t very good dinner company. So exhausted! In fact, I crashed the moment we got back to the hotel for nearly 12 hours!

Sunday we both slept in a bit, realizing we were tired and a bit dehydrated. Chase had done some homework on climbing routes and decided the best one for both of us was actually back in little cottonwood canyon in SLC! After breakfast at a great little café called the Bear Paw Coffee Company, we both drove back to SLC for a little climbing! My first outdoor climbing endeavour! Let me see if I can get the lingo right … We did a fairly easy, 5.7, trad climb, with Chase leading and I was cleaning. We did a single pitch with the intention of doing a multi-pitch, but I was too inexperienced for the second pitch. I have to say I was scared shitless and my nerves nearly got the best of me, but I did it! I am very proud of myself and I am glad I did it… makes me want to try again (much to Chase’s relief I’m sure!) After climbing we got some dinner and then we said goodbye so he could head back to Ely and get to work Monday morning!

Next episode: Grand Canyon over the fourth. I can hardly contain my excitement!

Until next time
K