Day 4: Rocks: Still Cool

Today the main attraction was Zion National Park. I had originally discovered this park when scanning the map for something to see north of the Grand Canyon, and didn’t really know much about it. My anticipation increased when Renee told me last week that it was an amazing area, and the drive there from Hurricane, through mountainous country, was beautiful. Zion didn’t disappoint – it was absolutely breathtaking. This 25km-long canyon was cut out of sandstone by the Virgin River, and in ancient times the area was part of the largest desert on the planet (according to our shuttle bus commentary).




We took a shuttle bus deep into the canyon, then walked to the entrance of a hike called The Narrows – a trek that largely consisted of river wading. We decided this hike was not for us, since we couldn’t handle being in a car for another two weeks with mouldy shoes. We did see some exciting wildlife on the way back to the shuttle bus though, including a tarantula, deer and multiple squirrels. We followed this one for quite a distance:



He probably thought we would tip him with food if he gave us a tour. No dice. We then did a few more walks, which can be summarised with these photos:





Zion National Park is a must-see if anyone is travelling even remotely close to the area. I heard some Americans talking on the bus, and they thought it rivalled Yosemite and was hugely underrated. I’ll make my own judgement after we’ve been to Yosemite, but I can definitely believe it comes close!

On the way back towards Hurricane, we saw crazy runners travelling ridiculous distances along a very hilly road. I now know this is a 187 mile two-day running relay: http://redrockrelay.com/zion/the-info/ Spectacular scenery, but you wouldn’t catch me dead running 14km uphill at 1pm in summer, like this white-capped runner on the left:



Next was a 4.5 hour drive to Salt Lake City, which was quite eventful. More amazing scenery, with looong straight stretches of road through valleys completely surrounded by mountains:



One of the slightly different things about the USA is that roadworks aren’t blocked off by traffic cones – they use what I’d call traffic columns. They’re big and fat and take up way too much space on the road.

Anyway, I was glad that I’d just handed the driving back over to Matt when we hit a long stretch of traffic columns. They don’t drop the speed limit much in roadwork areas either, so we were going at 104km/h between a closed-off lane of road and the shoulder. Suddenly, the columns made the road quite narrow and Matt had to move out onto the shoulder. He also started braking, since the road shoulders are ridged (I assume to wake you up with the noise, before you drive off the road accidentally). Then, out of nowhere, a wheelie bin appeared in the middle of the road! With nowhere to go, and only a split-second to think, Matt slammed on the brakes, and hit the wheelie bin just under the right headlight. It went flying, and the guy behind us locked his brakes and skidded into the closed-off lane, through the traffic columns. Luckily, really, because otherwise the guy behind him would have probably run into him.

We didn’t know what the hell had happened, so pulled over to check the damage (just a shallow scratch on the car) and look back to see if the guy behind us was okay. All was well, so we drove on, past a pulled-over car with a trailer and flashing hazard lights – probably the source of the bin. Good thing we cleared the road for the people behind us! Following that, we had about 50km of roadworks, where we drove next to a wall with only about a foot of road shoulder. Most people know I hate driving near walls, so this was my own personal hell, even though I was only a passenger. Finally we got to Salt Lake City, did some washing and now we’re watching Almost Famous. Long and strange day.

I’ll leave you for now with a photo of some of the bizarre snacks we’ve purchased (except the Pringles – they’re normal):