A walk in 8 parks, thinking of Mormons and Morons

Aloha all,

it’s not just a walk in a park, we’ve been back on the road for only two weeks and we’ve already walked in 8 national and state parks. Maybe it’s just like with the pretzels: Because I miss the good soft pretzels in Germany, I might overdo it a litte bit when I am there. But then again; is there such a thing as too many pretzels…or too many national parks?

Let's get Rocked! Def Leppard concert in Las Vegas

We flew back into Las Vegas and Def Leppard greeted us with a bang! It was my third time seeing them, my T-shirt from the 1992 tour is real vintage by now. Sandra has been listening to them even longer. It’s pretty impressive that they have been doing this for 42 years and are still going strong. Obviously, they are no spring chickens anymore, but they sound as good as ever. And it’s mostly the original members, but what do you expect from a band that keeps their drummer after he looses an arm? Another perspective: Even their “newest” member has been with the band longer than Jim Morrison has been alive. What a fun way to start the second half of our road trip!

Looking from Red Rocks Canyon to Las Vegas

 It was still very hot in Vegas, so when we had seen enough of the water fountain shows at the Bellagio, we drove up into the mountains. First to the very scenic Red Rocks Canyon and when that got too hot, further up to the Spring Mountains. We did a really fun hike into a slot canyon there, but we were not the only ones trying to escape the desert heat, so the campgrounds were full.

Slot Canyon in the Spring Mountains

The next best campground happened to be at the huge Clark County Shooting Complex just outside of Las Vegas. This campground overlooks the Strip, but is far enough to be very tranquil...until about 7am. But you can’t complain about people shooting at a shooting range, so we thought we join them. Neither one of us has ever fired a real gun, so it would have been something really special to do on our anniversary. Unfortunately, our German attitude got in the way. We felt it would be wise to get at least a short lesson before we start shooting, but lessons were not available that day. Maybe we’ll do that on our next anniversary, if we can’t think of anything more romantic.

Instead, we had a very nice anniversary lunch on our way out of town. My silly humor almost ruined the lunch though: It was 110F (about 43C), so I thought it was funny to ask for a table “outside in the sun”. The hostess did not blink an eye. You should have seen my face when she actually escorted us outside. Well, we all had a good laugh and then enjoyed our lunch in cool, air conditioned comfort. Usually, we are not big AC fans, but somewhere in the triple digits, my attitude changes dramatically. 

Sunset at Snow Canyon State Park

People often ask us how we find the places we go to and how we decide what to see. Usually, it’s a combination of looking at maps, listening to fellow travelers, stopping at visitor centers and researching online. But I want to add ‘dumb luck’ to the list. The only reason we went to the Snow Canyon State Park was that it was the most affordable campground we could find with electric hookups to run our AC in Joy. But what a beauty this little park turned out to be. We went on a great sunset hike and another one the next morning, both to spectacular viewpoints on top of petrified dunes. What a hidden gem!

Less hidden, but still a gem: Next, we went to Zion National Park, where we got really lucky with the campgrounds. Two out of three days, we even got to camp right next to the river with our own little bathing spot. We had been to Zion before, but I got to go further into “The Narrows” than I had been before and we got to do the famous “Angel’s Landing” trail for the first time. It’s less than 6 miles, but very steep and dramatically scenic. The last part of the trail goes along a ridge with a 700 foot drop on one side and a 1000 foot drop on the other. But for the parts where the trail is sometimes as narrow as 28 inches (71cm), they installed a chain to hold on to. I am not as fearless about heights as I used to be, without that chain I would have had to stay behind and wait for Sandra to return. From the top, you have a great view of Zion Canyon, including the rock slide area right across. For those of you familiar with Zion: The whole Weeping Rock area is closed indefinitely due to a massive rock slide that happened just two weeks ago. You can  watch the video a hiker took from Angels Landing (just search for ‘Zion rock slide cable mountain’), it’s a true miracle nobody got killed. Luckily, the popular trails below were closed for unrelated maintenance. The rock slide happened in the afternoon, normally there would have been dozens of hikers on those trails. Some guardian angel must have actually landed at Angels Landing and watched out over the hikers that day! He also protected us on the way down. There is a sign at the beginning of the trail, advising hikers how many people have fallen off the trail (9 since 2004). There wasn’t a lot of space for double digits, so I am glad we did not add to that number.

Angels Landing
Yep, the trail goes up that ridge behind us.

We also joined as many ranger programs as we could, including a ranger walk with only one other German couple, a bus ride with a ranger to some places the regular shuttle does not stop at and three ranger evening programs about rock climbing, animal adaptions and arches at Zion. I am constantly amazed by the consistent quality of these programs. The National Park Service might struggle with the budget cuts and with the overcrowding due to its own success, but in my view it’s still America’s best idea. 

Red Canyon, just outside of Bryce Canyon NP,
 if you want to avoid the crowds

On our way to Bryce Canyon, we stopped at the Red Canyon campground for a night. What a nice surprise that was. It’s almost as pretty as Bryce and on our morning hike we only met one other person. That’s a striking difference to the Angels Landing trail where it was super busy even though we started off before sunrise. Red Canyon is perfect if you want to avoid the crowds at some National Parks. I like most humans, but if want to stay away from them, there is still plenty of unspoiled, quiet beauty left in this country. We are so grateful that we have no time constraint on this tour and can linger in an area for as long as we want.

Colors and Shapes of Bryce Canyon
The gods most be crazy!

It’s been 26 years since Sandra was at Bryce Canyon. I had been there with Ronja three years ago, but since it’s one of my favorites, I was happy to go back and hike the hoodoos with Sandra again. Those formations and colors are just unbelievable. I have a vague idea how they have formed, but it all still looks unreal to me. On the first day, we looked at some view points and did a ranger led walk along the rim. On the second day, we did a longer hike through the hoodoos with a really nice lunch break at the historic lodge. That night we were invited to a little private star party by a fellow camper with a professional grade telescope. On the third day, we drove to the end of the road to see the other view points. They are not as spectacular as the ones in the main amphitheater, but we met a few very nice humans. Mostly a couple from the Jura region in France, who took a picture of Joy, because they were trying to collect license plates from all 50 states and we were the first “South Dakotans” they saw. We meet Germans all the time, but it was way more special to meet people from the Jura, where we had just gone with my parents a month ago. I think they were pretty excited, too, that someone knew their little home town. Hopefully we get to visit our new friends next time we go there.

Our new friends from the Jura region in France

Our last stop in Bryce Canyon was at the Mossy Cave. But more impressive than the cave was this ‘artificial’ waterfall. One more proof how industrious and hard working the Mormons are. Mormon pioneers dug ditches for two years in the 1890’s to divert water to the valley they wanted to settle. It’s still flowing there today, providing the residents with water and us with a nice photo opportunity.

Speaking of photo opportunities: Our next stop was literally named for that: The Kodakchrome Basin State Park is called so because Kodak came out with their color film just in time to capture the colors of this pretty area. We got to camp, hike and take pictures there.  All very nice, but surprisingly, the shower facilities were the highlight of the park. I’ve stayed in 4 star hotels with less luxurious showers than this remote state park; or as a fellow camper put it: Come for the scenery, stay for the showers. I actually went back to take a picture of the shower, but you’ve seen pretty showers before, so I rather include a picture of the campground in this beautiful setting. :

Kodakchrome Basin State Park

Now we are at the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument. We haven’t seen much of it yet, in fact we won’t see most of it at all, because it’s very rugged and remote and Joy does not handle unpaved roads that well. This area was the last area of the mainland to be mapped for a reason. We went to The Escalante Heritage Center that tells the story of the so-called ‘Hole-in-the-wall Expedition’, which made the Lewis & Clark expedition look like a walk in the park. 

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

Only a mormon would look at this landscape in the 1800’s and think: Let’s go through here and see who we can convert. 

And only a moron would look at this landscape in 2019 and think: Let’s take away some of the protection of this land and open it up for commercial use. 

You might have read about it in the news or you can guess who that moron is. Trump wants to shrink this National Monument to almost half its size. I’m not sure whether it’s because some donor or buddy wants to profit from deals that would be available if the protection of the National Monument is taken away or whether it’s only because Obama had enlarged it and he enjoys reversing anything Obama did whether it makes sense or not. Overall, on the road it’s a lot easier for me than at home to ignore all the silly drama Trump produces. But when it comes to my beloved National Parks, it gets under my skin. But for now his plans to shrink this park are still held up in the courts and hopefully will be for a while. And if our sampling of opinions of park rangers is any indication for the next election, it looks pretty good that someone else will be in charge before the courts decide. But park rangers might not be representative of the whole electorate and we have not made it to Oklahoma to poll some regular folks yet. 

Aloha from the still truly grand Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument,

Chris & Sandra