Zion Day 2: Observation Point

So I had this great idea to wake up at the crack of dawn and see the sunrise in Zion Canyon. As many of you know I'm not exactly a morning person. I can cope with waking up early if there is a reason, I have a strong cup of coffee and I have something to look forward to. Well I thought all of my qualifications were checked off the list so I asked Kris if it would be alright to get up early and see the sunrise. The alarm went off bright and early and I immediately turned it off. It's human nature to stop that dreadful sound when one is trying to rest... We ended up getting a move on around an hour too late, but all was well because the weather wasn't great and the sky was overcast. We headed up to the museum to get a view from the back deck. One the shuttle driver was raging about. The view was amazing indeed, even with the lack of baby blue sky. The shuttle picked us up from the museum and drove us to the trailhead for Observation Point. This trail would take us to the very top of the canyon, at the northern end. At the top we would be able to look right down the gut of the entire canyon. This was the hike I was volunteering for I agreed to hike up to Angels Landing... We got down to business and quickly ascended switchback after switchback. The canyon walls were formidable and cold above us. That wasn't the only thing that was cold. The temps had dropped the night before and Zion was a cool 45 - 50 degrees that morning. The wind was up and scattered showers were the forecast. It made for some great pictures.

Soon we came to the canyon wall and the trail turned sharply. We continued into the canyon walls themselves and eventually found ourselves standing above a creek that cuts through the rock. The trail meandered into a slot canyon that eventually came to a creek crossing. The crossing was only ten feet wide but there was nothing to stand on but a rickety stick. In an attempt to keep my wife dry I went first to test the log. With a stick in hand for stability I quickly and skillfully manuevered over the log onto dry land. After my heroic deed I handed the stick to my wife and told her that all would be well!

It was way harder to cross that the picture shows, trust me. Anyway the path turned up the creek and we had to climb some low rocks to keep from getting wet. After that we found ourselves in an amazing slot canyon. The pics don't do it justice due to the light but you should check them out on Kristen's facebook.

We continued up the trail and came out into the sunlight on the other side of the slot canyon. The switchbacks continued up but the sun was now beating down on us and we were enjoying the warmth. Once we had walked for some time we noticed that we were gaining a good amount of elevation. The switchbacks were now four feet wide with a drop straight down on one side. We walked up for nearly an hour before the path leveled out. We were at the top of the canyon but the trail wound a slow circle around the top of the formation we were walking on. Eventually we came to Observation Point.

The landing we were standing on was truly at the top of the canyon and we could stare directly down its length. The wind was up so we didn't get to courageous but it was an awe inspiring moment not to be missed.

Once we had our fill of chasing off ground varmints we picked up and started the long walk down. About ten minutes into the descent I heard an enormous roar and whipped my head to the sky. I figured there was anvil shaped clouds on the horizon and thunder was in our future. As I turned my field of vision I noticed something tumbling from the cliffs across the canyon. I honed in on the movement and noticed it wasn't thunder, but a rock slide. A small section of the cliffs had broken off and chunks of rock poured down over the ledge. The refuse bounced into a large patch of snow that had gathered in a flat spot on the cliffs and then dropped down into the slot canyon below. When everything went quiet I looked back up to Kris. "Did you see that?", I asked. "What? I heard some thunder.", she replied. I explained the commotion and we watched the last pebbles slide over into the abyss.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We got the shuttle down, listened to the annoying driver and a tourist converse in loud and obnoxious voices, and then hit the road. We headed towards Bryce Canyon, a cool 90 miles away. Last night we got to Bryce, hit the lodge and had dinner. We then plugged in and got our computing down for the night. The night at the campground last night did get a bit chilly. I just spoke with the maintenance guy at the lodge (we're here again right now) and he told us that it got into the teens last night... we had a down blanket and all our clothes on. When we woke up the front window in the van was frozen, on the inside.

But that is a story for another day... like tomorrow.

Hope you're all doing well. Talk to you soon!

P.S. Almost forgot. I was trying to teach Kris an old trick that Bear Grylls taught me on the TV. Supposedly you can bite the needle off of a Yucca plant, pull the stem off and use the entire thing to sew with. Well I decided that I'm like old Bear, why not give it a try. I'll tell you what those damned needles are sharp. And biting that son of a bitch off isn't as easy as Mr. Grylls makes it look on TV. I did eventually get the strands off, sans needle. I made Kris a nice little bracelet out of it. Top that Bear!