October 14

I was a bit "down" the next morning (10-14). Something had bothered me the day before, affecting my enjoyment of Zion National Park, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I knew I hadn’t found Zion to be quite as spectacular as I had expected, but didn’t know why. Secretly, I feared I was getting National Park "burnout". However, a stop at the Visitor Center and the ride heading east out of the Park fixed everything.

I stopped at the Visitor Center just for the purpose of getting a cold drink of water before beginning the 12-mile climb out of the Park. However, before I could get back on my bike, I was besieged by a busload of 5^th or 6^th graders on a field trip. They asked a million questions – where are you from, where are you going, how far do you travel in a day, what’s in that thing, do you ever stay in a hotel, why are you doing this, are you really from Ohio, can I try riding your bike? I ate it up. One of my inspirations for this journey is a vivid image of passing an old (at least she seemed old) woman riding her bicycle alone in the desert of Arizona or Utah while we were there on vacation in 1964. I now hope that a few of the tens of thousands of kids who will pass by me during this journey will be inspired to do something similar some day. Their vivid image may be of an old (at least he seemed old) man with a beard riding his bicycle alone in the desert or up a mountain or across the Great Plains. Meeting these kids served as an affirmation that I am doing something meaningful.

Click on thumbnails to see full photograph.

Fifteen minutes later, I knew what was bothering me about Zion – it hit me squarely in the face as I was climbing through the switchbacks heading for the long (1.1 miles) tunnel on the Mt. Carmel Highway. I enjoy scenery best when my eyes are drawn both upward and downward, and yesterday from the valley floor, all of the scenery was upward. Today it was both. In my opinion, the best view of Zion is from the Canyon Overlook at the east end of the tunnel and above the Great Arch. I am also sure that I would have enjoyed my time more yesterday if I had taken the Angels Landing Trail, which leads to a point 1500 feet above the valley floor right in the middle of the canyon. It’s a four-hour hike, though, and I forsook it for the sake of wading through the Narrows. Next time I’ll stay long enough to take the 16 mile hike through the Narrows and climb to the top of Angels Landing.

The scenery on the other side of the long tunnel is different from that of the canyon. They call this "slickrock" country where rocks of white, orange and red have been uplifted and eroded into fantastic shapes with unusual patterns of cracks and grooves. Some of the rock looks to have been torturously uplifted (bent every which way), while other shows wavy patterns indicating that sand dunes were formed before being compressed into rock. The best known example is the Checkerboard Mesa which has horizontal lines formed by layers of wind-blown sand and vertical lines formed by stress and erosion of the surface (most likely from expansion and contraction due to temperature changes).

I left Zion National Park feeling very good about it. I can now say, without the reservation I felt yesterday, that this place is splendid – certainly in the top six among all of the National Parks.

G.A.S.P.

(Great Adventures to Scenic Places)