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Early Saturday morning, we flew into Las Vegas and picked up our
rental car -- a Mercury Grand Marqui. Useful information: a Mercury
Grand Marqui (premium car category) is just big enough to carry
luggage for 4 campers for a week (we each had our filled packs
plus another bag for clean clothes, etc.). After some creative
trunk stuffing, we were on Interstate 15, headed North toward
Zion. One thing I noticed was the fair number of cyclists heading
north on I-15. I was a bit surprised since I didn't think there
was much along the way. Some of them may have been making the
trip from Las Vegas to Zion, but some weren't carrying any baggage,
implying they were simply riding a busy interstate for the fun
of it. I guess there's not much good riding in Vegas!
We gained an hour driving to Utah, since Utah is in the Mountain
Time Zone. Note, times can be a bit confusing in this area. If
it's 3pm in California during Daylight Savings Time, it's also
3pm in Nevada and Arizona, but 4pm in Utah. However, if it's 3pm
in California during Standard Time, it's also 3pm in Nevada, but
4pm in Arizona and Utah. Got it? Arizona doesn't recognize Daylight
Savings Time.
Well, we arrived at the Kolob Canyons Visitor Center of Zion National
Park around lunch time. First mistake: I had mistakenly thought
we'd be able to get lunch there. No such luck. Just a small visitor
center with no food for miles. But we had energy bars and I had
a six-pack of bagels, so we were okay for a while.
Our first shock: the person at the visitor center said that the
West Rim trail near Lava Point and Wildcat Canyon Trail were closed
due to snow, and that we couldn't hike it. That was an integral
part of the hike I had planned for Sunday/Monday/Tuesday. No one
had mentioned snow when I had called earlier -- in fact, I had
arranged to take a shuttle Sunday morning and they happily said
they'd take me there! Needless to say, I was a bit upset. I was
also a bit wary, however, as the guy at the visitor center didn't
seem to have a good attitude (wasn't being very helpful), and
I wondered if he knew what he was talking about. We decided we'd
worry about it later and set off on our original plan for Saturday,
though.
We first made the drive to the Kolob Canyons Viewpoint, just 5
or 10 miles down the road from the visitor center. There, we had
great views of the Finger Canyons of the Kolob. This area of the
park is very different from the rest of Zion. It's very red, I'd
say less varied, and has a lot fewer visitors.
View from the Kolob Canyons Viewpoint
We did pass some backpackers who were headed off on the La Verkin
Creek Trail, which visits the Kolob Arch (the world's largest
freestanding arch. That was one alternative to our West Rim hike.
After taking in the sights, we backtracked to the trailhead for
our first hike -- the middle fork of Taylor Creek, which would take us to Double Arch
Alcove.
After the hike, we made the hour drive to Springdale, the city
at the entrance to Zion. We stayed at the Driftwood Lodge. Despite
the AAA book, they're no longer a Best Western, but they're pretty
nice, with a nice view and the Virgin River surging past just
a couple hundred feet away.
We ate at Switchback (1149 S. Zion Park Blvd., Springdale, UT
84767, 801-772-3777) -- as Joe would say, a dot.com restaurant.
Decent food at expensive prices. Afterwards, we started packing
for our backpacking trip. We were still going on the assumption
that we could do the hike we wanted, and would change it if the
rangers at the main visitor center said we couldn't.
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