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Early Sunday morning, after a continental breakfast at the Driftwood,
we were off toward Zion itself. We drove to the visitor center
and talked with the rangers. At least 2 rangers there confirmed
that the West Rim trail near Lava Point was snowed out. In fact,
the first one called up the Zion Lodge transportation desk and
berated them for taking my reservation without informing me of
the snowy conditions. I canceled the reservation and we made alternate
plans...
Since (it appeared) the trail was snowed out, we decided we would
spend the first day hiking up to the plateau via the West Rim
Trail, camp there, come back the second day, hike up the East
Rim Trail that same day, and then down the third day. This change
immediately made our hike much more difficult, since the original
plan involved almost all downhill hiking (no more than 2000 feet
of vertical in 3 days). Our 3-day trip would now involve about
7000 feet of climbing!
We started our journey by hiking the West Rim Trail from the Grotto Picnic Area to Cabin Spring.
After setting up camp and having an early dinner, Jay, Weihaw
and I hiked the West Rim Trail around to the other side of the plateau to take in the views.
At night, the stars looked great, though I couldn't see all that
well through the tent. I would have gone outside, but there were
mosquitoes just waiting for me to pop my head outside the tent.
I should have put the rain fly on to retain more heat, but I had
wanted to get a look at the sky. Due to my numerous wakings during
the night, I can tell you that the moon was half full, and that's
about it.
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