The night before leaving Vegas I slept for maybe 2 hours. Maybe I wasn’t used to sleeping in a bed, who knows, but I couldn’t sleep and I was running on empty when I started. Getting out of Vegas took a lot longer than I expected. Between the oil change, tire replacement and grocery shopping I didn’t get on the road until early afternoon. This was August 8th which gave me 8 days until my next drop dead anchor point to meet up with friends for the total eclipse in Salt Lake City. In other words I had 8 days to get from Las Vegas to Salt Lake City. A drive that could be done in about 6 hours, so I had a lot of time to kill. Good thing Utah is a giant state filled with things to see.
The first decision was whether to start at the Grand Canyon then work up or go straight to Zion National Park. There are a few “guidelines” I traveled the road by: See awesome stuff (obviously), avoid cities, focus on places you wouldn’t go out of your way to see in the future (aka Mount Rushmore. I’m not flying to go see Mount Rushmore so check it off now), and see new places. So when it comes to the Grand Canyon, it honestly didn’t check enough boxes because (and I know this sounds backwards but) it is my favorite place in the world and I will be making multiple trips there in the future so I didn’t feel like I needed to drive there. Also, driving to the South Rim puts me on the wrong side of an enormous hole in the ground if I am planning on going to the SLC and you pretty much have to drive to Zion if you want to go to the North Rim so Zion it is.
Now one thing John and I had experienced on our 10 days traveling together that I had not encountered by myself was sleeping in the heat. The previous month saw me traveling through the Canadian Rockies, and the Pacific Northwest where the evening temperature fell into the 50s most nights which is perfect for sleeping in your car. John and I had been pretty diligent about finding camping locations at high elevations. I checked the weather in Springdale, UT (the valley of the canyon) and it forecast low 70s for the evening. Not great but doable. I found a spot outside the park on BLM land on the North Creek and I wouldn’t sleep in my car but my tent should be fine. After not sleeping the night before I was looking forward to recharging. Well that didn’t happen. It felt like the mid 80s until about 4am when the temperature finally started dropping. So after 2 sleepless nights I’m not in the greatest of moods and while originally planning two days in Zion, I decided I had to cram as much into one day and get out of the valley and get to higher elevation.
I hiked Angel’s Landing’s that day which turned out to be one of my favorite hikes of the summer. A lot of elevation gain and scary at times as you are hiking up a very thin ridge with steep slopes on either side. The hike provides metal chains for you to hold on to so you don’t slip off the edge, pretty exciting. The view was breathtaking at the top as you are on this ledge that juts into the middle of the canyon looking up and down the valley.
Unfortunately it is an incredibly crowded trail which made using the metal chains even more difficult as people are dancing around each other going up and down the trail.
After Angel’s Landing I went to the most popular trail in the park, The Narrows. A walk in and through the Virgin River with canyon walls protruding out of the Earth hundreds of feet on either side of you keeping you enclosed in the canyon. Although I have hiked this trail before I figured since I was here I had to do it again. Plus it was super hot and The Narrows is shaded by the canyon walls and you get to walk in refreshing water.
After two days of not sleeping and a long hike in the heat my patience was pretty much gone. The Narrows was completely packed with people and it felt more like a water park than nature. I walked up the canyon for about an hour turned around and hiked out. I look forward to hiking it again with family and friends because it is truly a beautiful and unique hike but when you are looking for a solitary hike, it is not the place.
I rode the bus out of the Canyon, ate at Oscar’s Cafe (highly recommend) and headed to Bryce.
Matthew