Zion

After I left Bryce National Park I continued south on route 89 toward Las Vegas. To get to Vegas I needed to take route 15 south. Zion National Park is conveniently located between route 89 and route 15 so I made for the park.

When I pulled into Zion National Park the heat was unbearable. I’ve never ridden a motorcycle without a helmet before, but I decided to try it in the park. I pulled over and strapped the helmet to the top of my left hard bag. My cooler is strapped to my right hard bag.

As I rolled through Zion helmetless I could hear every noise the bike made; usually the helmet masks all but the loudest sounds. The road through Zion proved to be more challenging than I realized. It climbed steeply up a thousand feet to the canyon rim and then descended through tight zigs and zags down to the canyon floor. As I entered the turns I broke with my back brake, and every time I did I heard a hissing sound that I feared meant I was grinding my calibers. I pulled over to see if I could tell how much material was left on the pads, but I could not get a good view. I continued on trying to use the back brake sparingly (tough for me because I have a bad habit of dragging the back brake into turns).

With the wobble and the back brake now playing on my mind, I continued through the park. I’ve run out of ways to describe awe-inspiring scenery in this blog and I have not even reached the Grand Canyon yet. The road through Zion is 13 miles long from the entrance on the 89 side to the exit on the route 15 (or Springdale) side.

About mid way through I went through a dark narrow tunnel that was nearly a mile long. It took a while for my eyes to adjust from the bright sun to the dark tunnel. I drove the first 100 yards without being able to see a thing.

On the other side of the tunnel the road continued to wind through the park. Around each bend I discovered a new dramatic view of towering cliffs made of multicolored rock.

I can imagine some wondering if I had not grown board of looking at the scenery. After all, I have been through three canyon National Parks in two days (Arches, Red Rock, and Bryce). The truth is each of the parks is so different from the other that viewing one does not take away from viewing the other. Arches was very dry and hot with deep red colored rock formations that had been sculpted into gravity defying shapes. Red Rock looked like one of those wet sand sculptures made of fire red sand, and Bryce combined the best of Arches and Red Rock, but on a massive scale in a much cooler wilderness setting. They all had rocks, but they were all very different.

The road through Zion winds down to the canyon floor, but it does not run along the river that carved the scenery. The road that parallels the river is closed to general traffic. The views and trails on the river road really set Zion apart from the other canyon parks. To see them I had to leave the bike at the visitor center and take a park shuttle.

The shuttle system at Zion is excellent. The shuttles run every 6 minutes in both directions along the river road. There are 8 or 9 stops. At every stop there are scenic views or trails to scenic views. Some of the trails are long and challenging.

It was a little after eleven when I reached the visitor center. Zion is about a 2 hour ride from Vegas. I decided I’d kill a couple hours in the park and plan to reach Vegas by 3 or 4 (I did not realize how incredibility stupid this plan was until later).

I hopped on the shuttle and got off at the first couple of stops to take pictures. At the 5th stop I discovered a trail leading to a place high above the canyon floor called Angel’s Point. I had seen a post card of the climb to Angel’s Point in the visitor’s center. It showed a line of people climbing a great zig zagging stair up the side of a steep cliff. The trail is over 2 miles long. I wanted to see the stair.

As I climbed the trail, I looked back down at the canyon floor and the river. The view reminded me of Yosemite. I used to think Yosemite was the most beautiful place on earth; I still believe that, but I’m a little more open minded there may be other contenders.

I had hiked about a half mile along the trail when for some reason I checked for my keys. Sure enough, they were missing. I frantically checked all my pockets. I had lost the bike keys. I didn’t panic at first. I had a spare hidden on the bike. I still wanted to see the stair. I contemplated continuing up the trail when it occurred to me I probably left the keys in the ignition. With the hike back to the shuttle station and the shuttle ride, I was at least 40 minutes away from the bike. The park was full of people. I wasn’t worried about anyone taking the bike; I was worried someone would open the locked hard bags and take their contents; including my laptop.
I rushed back down the trail and grabbed the next shuttle.

This is a view of the path I was on. You can see people on the path if you look.

The driver was exceedingly slow, and it was all I could do not to shout at him to speed it up. When we finally returned to the visitor center my stress turned to momentary panic when I could not find the bike. I was about to head into the center and report the bike stolen when I realized I was in the wrong parking area (they all look alike). I found my bike just where I’d left it with everything still secure in the hard bags. My keys were where I left them too; in the ignition.

I packed up and headed to Sin City.