Last week, Michael and I embarked on what we thought was going to be an epic adventure through Zion National Park. He had to attend annual training for the Reserves in southern (and I mean southern) Arizona at Fort Huachuca for two weeks. He left on October 1, I finished my last day of work at the preschool on October 8, and then drove all the way across Colorado and New Mexico to meet him.
We had a good time at Fort Huachuca where we visited the Kartchner Caves and Coronado National Monument on the US/Mexico border.
We had a good time at Fort Huachuca where we visited the Kartchner Caves and Coronado National Monument on the US/Mexico border.
The border... yikes! I'm not gonna lie, I was a little sketched out by being right along the border especially since Michael spoke with a border patrol agent who told us that there are always scouts hiding in the hills! Border patrol= a very intense job!!
We spent a week together at Fort Huachuca and then headed out toward Zion via the Grand Canyon. My family had an epic adventure at the Grand Canyon when I was a kid (and by epic I mean HORRIBLE!) so I was very excited to go there and leave with a better taste of the beautiful canyon.
We arrived on Saturday afternoon after literally driving all the way across the state of Arizona so we caught a glimpse of the canyon and then set up camp for the night.
I'd never been car camping and let me tell you, it's the way to go! You have all the benefits and conveniences of your car but still get to sleep out under the stars.
Sunday morning we woke up before the crack of dawn, layered up, and went to the rim to watch the sunrise. I thought I had seen some beautiful sunrises before, but this was simply majestic. What a perfect way to celebrate the Sabbath Day by basking in the glory of the Lord's creation!
Just magnificent!
You may be surprised that that was the extent of our Grand Canyon experience, but it was. We would definitely like to go back and hike the North Rim, but it's always good to leave wanting more.
So, we hopped back in the car and continued our drive to Zion National Park! Before we got there, we drove across the Lake Powell Dam, which is both beautiful and sad at the same time. It's crazy to be driving across the desert and find such an immense amount of water. What an anomaly.
Eventually, we made it to Zion, which is one of the most beautiful National Parks in the country.
Our intention was the meet up with two of our friends from NOLS, Dane and B, and drop a slot. Zion is a canyon system made up of numerous vary narrow canyons called slot canyons. When we were at NOLS we spent a great deal of time "dropping slots" which basically entails climbing to the top of a canyon system and then climbing back down through the canyon through a series of rappels. The one we had selected, Behunin Canyon, had about 11 rappels with the largest being a free-hanging 165 foot rappel! We were super stoked until we woke up Monday morning to rain!! Slot canyons can flash flood during a large rain storm within minutes and they are not a place in which you want to be caught! We thought about staying around to climb, but unfortunately most of Zion is sandstone which just crumbles when it's wet, so that wasn't an option either :(
With heavy hearts, we decided to forgo trying to drop the slot and got back in the car to head home. On Monday we drove across the state of Utah and the rest of Colorado racking up four full states and over 2,000 miles for this little road trip! The best part of the drive back was that we drove through Green River, Utah where we had stayed the night during our NOLS course. Even though Green River literally consists of only two gas stations, a state park and an RV park, it was very exciting for both of us to return to a place that was the start of our epic journey in the canyons.
I guess we'll just have to try again next time...
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