Zion National Park

Thank goodness for fans and airflow, because holy cow, was it ever a hot sleep! I broke down and bought a 12V dual fan from the Love's shop to make our sleep at least a bit comfortable, and I honestly think it was the only reason we actually got any! Forget the alarm, we wake up early anyways from the jetlag, and decide to forgo morning rituals in favour of getting on the road, to at least make it to Zion somewhat early today.

Through Nevada, through Arizona and into Utah we go, and somewhere past the border, Mario spots a billboard claiming the best bakery in Utah is in St. George. I have often complained that we don't stop enough to visit the random things on road trips, be it here in the US, or anywhere else in the world, so he suggests we go - how can I say no? I plot the route. Maybe 20 minutes later we are parked in the middle of the prettiest town surrounded by pink canyon walls, in a shady spot in the municipal parking lot next to city hall. On our table sits 2 bowls of yogurt and granola, coffee, and a box of pastries from Farmstead, the best bakery in Utah. Now, I really can't claim that, as this is the ONLY bakery in Utah I have been to, but if the guava jam and cheese danish, or creamy custard-filled "tabernacle" croissant are anything to go by, my vote is for Farmstead. And the St. George sourdough loaf that we buy is fantastically moist and makes AMAZING peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - more on that later. 

Back on the road, and soon we are arriving at our destination, Zion National Park. Well, almost - we took so long getting here that the parking lot is full, and we have to park on the street in town and take a shuttle in, but it's only a 10 minute walk to the visitor's centre, and we are going hiking, so what's an extra 10 minutes, right? Three shuttle pass us by as we are walking in the stifling heat, but it's a dry heat. 

The plan is to take the park's shuttle(which is the only way to get into the park) to the Kayenta trail, leading to the Emerald pools, a nice 1.5-mile journey into the canyon's hidden corners, then to tack on a return walk along the Sand Bench trail. Sand ench is smooth and sandy, used primarily as a horse trail. It makes a loop back to the shuttle stops on the main, which we much prefer than walking the same trail into and back out of a location - and offers more to see. Emerald pools is one of those hikes that draws in all the adventures visitors, but also the day-trippers in their white sneakers, carrying their purses and water bottles. We see hikers of all types, but it's more common to see well-prepared travellers than not. This is a HOT location, so you have to be well-prepared no matter the length of the hike.

I cannot find the words to describe the beauty of the vistas we took in on our trip around the trail, so I'll let the photos express their 1000 words:

(insert here a brief pit-stop at the Upper Emerald pool for delicious and very needed peanut butter and jam sandwiches, seated on a rock next to the water. Energy levels were waning, and the sandwiches, jam soaking into the bread by now, definitely did the trick in restoring our drive to keep going)

Now the Sand Bench trail should have been easy and straight foward. Apparently too easy for Mario, decided to take the first opportunity he saw for off-roading, and lead us to a skinning footpath running the length of Virgin River, which splits the park in two. This caused  two problems. One, that we now had not proper trail markers to follow, and were relying on that fact that whoever blazed this "trail" know where they were going, and two, that it would eventually lead us to a bridge across the river, of which there were few. In fact, one of the bridges that normally crossed at the end of the Kayenta trail was closed because it was structurally unsound, and the next known crossing was back towards the start of the park, extra distance I didn't want to have to add onto my hike at this point. Thankfully, Mario instinct proved right this time, and we did indeed pop out of the woods just shy of that wonderful bridge, and I practically danced across it to the shuttle stop.

Zion - Mt.Carmel Tunnel

From Zion, we drove up and out of the canyon, and through the amazingly ahead-of-its-time Mt. Carmel tunnel - dug through the rock in 1929. There's not ventilation system, but holes dug through the tunnel's walls show snippets of the canyon as we cruise through the darkness. Out the other side, it's nice drive up to the Dixie National Forest, where some great dispersed camping awaits. What also awaits is a friendly gentleman at the entrance road, retrieving his model plane from the long grass where it had a rather abrupt landing. He jokes with us, apologizing for the state of the area, then telling us the roads are fine, and there is plenty of space left as her continues on his way. 

Dispersed camping is where people who camp in self-contained vehicles, pull up onto usually Government-owned land(called BLM land for the Bureau of Land Management), and stay for a short period of time for free. Anyone can use BLM land for camping, but you have to leave as you found it, and can stay in a same location no more than 14 consecutive days, but with so much BLM land out there, it's easy to find another spot. Dispersed camping is the same, but with a little more attention to it from the BLM. Sometimes there are pit toilets, sometime, there are designated sites, sometimes there are firepits, like here, but mostly it just means that there is some upkeep done on the land, like thinning of trees or cutting of underbrush. And since the trees are just left on the ground to dry out, we can make good use of the nice little fire pit next to where we park for the night. 

It's cooler up here in Dixie National Forest, with being at a much higher elevation than Zion. Twenty degrees, in fact. It's so refreshingly cool that I put on a sweater and pants while Mario uses some dried pinecones as tinder, and soon I see the flames licking their way up into the sky. I cook up a quick chili for us, and we cozy up together on a felled log to enjoy the warmth, the food, and a glass of wine. Above us, the sky is a blanket of stars. There are no cities nearby, so we see everything, including a rather prominent Milky Way. A line of satellites dance across the sky, and then one-by-one blink off into obscurity. We open all the windows and air out the hot box of a campervan - everything is holding residual heat, and we just want to cool down. Needless to say, with the temperature so much more refreshing, we sleep like babies.