After camping overnight near Bryce Canyon we drove basically straight to Zion Canyon National Park. What a beautiful area. Again with the amazing rocks in interesting formations! The road we took leading into the canyon was amazing and wound back and forth and included a tunnel a mile long with windows in places to see a glimpse of the canyon. The coolest part was they had to stop traffic coming the other way as the bus was too tall to stay to one side and so we drove down the middle. That added $15 to the entry fee, and it was worth it, at least in my book. This is an incredibly well set up park, the campground is right by the visitor's centre and there are shuttles that run the length of the canyon and back all day and into the evening so there are very few cars on the road. There are a number of different walks and hikes from 15 minutes to 8 hours from easy to "strenuous". Of course the two recommended by our drivers were strenuous so while initially we thought we might not, we ended up doing both Angel's Landing that afternoon, and The Narrows the next morning.
Angel's Landing was really hard! We took about 4.5 hours, but only the last 45 mins was the easy downhill. That same stretch took maybe 2.5 hours to go up, altogether the trail goes up 500 meters which is a lot!!! I was glad there was some cloud cover and it was marginally cooler than it had been. That part of the trail was paved the whole way and there were a couple of sets of switchbacks which reminded me of Bryce the day before. Then we arrived at an open area (again lots of chipmunks hanging around, I'm almost immune now) where you decide whether to go on. The last stretch is incredibly scrambly and scary as you are so high up and there is not much room for error. There are signs saying there have been fatalities and "Your safety is your responsibility"! There are chains strung along significant stretches of the way (I won't call it a path!) and they were very necessary. I spent most of my time watching closely where I was putting my feet, when I paused to look around I got some serious stomach issues and went back to looking at my feet. I don't have an issue with heights but there are heights and then there are *heights*!! Still the end result was worth it. An amazing view and a definite sense of accomplishment! Boy was I tired, but I still made it to a Ranger Talk in the evening, "The eyes of Zion" about how the different animals see the world, and I really enjoyed that too.
The Narrows was very different. Zion Canyon is created by the Virgin River and this walk goes up the top end of the canyon and up the river. Literally, the river is the path. The beauty of this walk is that it is up and back with no real "end" and so you can just go as far as you want to. The deepest part we went through was just over my waste, I understand further up you are swimming but we didn't go that far. I was much more comfortable on this walk, the worst that could happen if you lost your footing was a sore and wet butt, and I certainly saw a couple of people looking unhappy and wet from head to toe and I suspect that was what happened. I had taken the advice and worn my hiking boots and so the footing was pretty good, though the current was reasonable in places so I was pretty careful. We also had our cameras in zip-lock bags and were very careful when we took them out. While the previous hike had me marveling at the efforts made to create the trail, this was the exact opposite with no trail maintenance required :-). We were however still warned about safety, and had to check before we went for the possibility of flash flooding (not impossible as we had some decent rain the night before we arrived).
For this hike Daz, Minnie and I were joined by Anders and Katrin from Denmark and it was nice to have their company too. I have enjoyed getting to know them, they are a lovely couple. The scenary on this walk was beautiful (I think I'm overusing that word today) and it was another hot cloudless day so a good choice of walk to do. We had time for one more wee stop and made it back to the bus with time to get changed and a bit dry and head to Las Vegas.
Zion was much greener than most of the other National Parks we've been in recently and it was incredibly well set up for visitors of a whole range of abilities and interests with wheelchair accessible paths and a horse-riding trail. I saw a few cyclists too but that did look like hard work! Also the fact we could camp right in the park made this probably my favorite stop.
The 3 hour drive to Vegas took us out of Utah, through about 25 miles across the corned of Arizona and into Nevada. My last two new states (I'll be in California today but I've been there before). In total I have done 25 states, two Canadian Provinces and Washington DC (which is also 4 time zones) so not a bad effort. Still plenty to go for the next trip or two though :-). The drive was interesting for a while but certainly flattened out, and you could see Vegas from a long way out.
After dropping all the others near The Strip the drivers kindly dropped me at my motel. It was so nice to have a shower and spread out in my own space. After getting myself sorted I headed out to try and meet up with some of the others, but didn't manage it so just wandered around on my own. That was fine, I planned to lose a little money and I did, just enough to confirm I really am not a gambler! The layout of the whole town is designed to get you in and keep you in the casinos, for the most part you can't cross the street you have to go up and over, and that often involves going through a casino. The streets are named for the casino on them, and they take up whole (big) blocks. And the lights and sounds (music and advertising) and smells (food and cigarettes) were almost overwhelming, just so many people everywhere. Also, two completely unusual activities in my world, smoking inside and drinking outside were completely common and ok, many casinos had street facing bars and everyone seemed to be drinking. Alcohol was really cheap, or free if you were gambling! Also there seemed to be heaps of kids about, even really late which I didn't expect at all.
I did go back to the bus pick-up point to say goodbye to the others and then headed to the motel (only a 10 min walk from The Strip) around midnight.
Next day was Dig This. I had some help the day before to make sure I knew how to get there and I had plenty of time, especially as I woke up too early! I even managed to get my boots mostly dry as I had to wear them, they are the only closed toe shoes I have with me. I was also introduced to the owner, Ed, a fellow kiwi and had a bit of a chat to him. Then it was on to the breathalyser check (understandable!) and the safety briefing, before heading out into the heat. There were two vehicle options, excavators and bulldozers, only the latter was available by the time I booked, and I thought I would have preferred the other, but actually I think I was happier as we got to do a lot of actual driving while the other was more sitting still and using the bucket on the digger a lot. We got to build a ramp and then go over it, and back, and sideways and then try and flatten it out. There was also a row of cones to slalom through, and later to push a stack of large 2 large tires through. I managed not to take out any cones though came pretty close a couple of times and certainly kicked up some dust, though they had a truck spraying water periodically which helped. I was also very glad the cab was air conditioned. I was very happy but quite exhausted by the end of the time and some kind locals gave me a lift to the motel so I didn't have to walk back to the bus stop in the 40 degree heat. After a quick blog post which I managed in spite of the seriously dodgy Internet access I took a much needed afternoon nap.
My second evening I had a couple of things I wanted to catch at certain times and as traffic is so choked up at all times of the day you have to allow lots of time. There is a good bus service though that runs frequently, it's called the Deuce and while slow at least has air con and seats! Treasure Island has a show every 90 mins with Sirens and Pirates and a bit of a battle with fireworks which was fun and had heaps of people watching. Then a long way from the main part of The Strip is Fremont Street which apparently is old Las Vegas. It has a long canopy which they project video on to, and free street concerts and on the hour they do a music and light show (picture attached). I spent a bit of time there, just wandering and looking, there are heaps of people in costume (both recognisable characters and randomly) on the street here and on The Strip, I saw the Angry Bird, lots of Captain Jack Sparrows and Captain America and Thor to name but a few. This area was slightly more low key but that's speaking relatively of course and they also have the Neon Museum which is lots of old signs which have been restored and are dotted along Fremont Street and while pretty certainly adds to the visual clutter. It was after 1am by the time I got in, and with a 5am airport shuttle to catch that didn't leave much time for sleep!
Today I've made it to LA and Universal Studios though I didn't get there till nearly midday due to a flight schedule change. Still I made it around all the attractions and shows thanks completely to the front of the line pass I purchased. There is no way I would have managed it with any waiting at all. Best ride was Transformers 3D which was mostly motion and visual rather than an actual roller coaster which they had with a Mummy ride, and best show was probably the Terminator 2: 3D one, although they did a great job with Waterworld. The shows featured live actors and lots of action and special effects. Being a movie buff I appreciated the behind the scenes tour showing the sound stages and external sets, everything from the standard New York city set which can be changed up to be any American city, to Wisteria Lane from Desperate Houseives and the Amityville set from Jaws. This ride also featured some action set pieces, a King Kong one created by Peter Jackson among others and they were fun too.
Now I'm on my way back to the airport, hopefully with a little time up my sleeve, and hopefully I'll find a Wi Fi somewhere so this gets home before I do. It's been a good day though a little stressful with the time pressure. At least I managed to check my main bag all the way through from Vegas to Auckland so I didn't have to manage that today. They don't have any luggage storage at LAX anymore, since 9/11 of course. Sigh.
So, to round up the trip. I'm really glad I did it and I've seen and done some really cool things. It was good to have Mum for the first part, and it was absolutely the right call to not have her for the second. It was certainly an experience, on the whole I think the first tour was better, but for a whole variety of reasons which I probably still haven't picked apart so I'll save that for another time. As if I didn't know already, this trip has demonstrated how much better I function on enough sleep, and traveling is hard enough without that added challenge. Not sure what I'd do differently, I'm not sure I'm capable of planning down days, maybe I need to practice that (but don't hold your breath!)
That's me, I'm signing off, see you all on the other side of the date line :-)
Love
Sarah
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