12th Aug 2009
Utah - Part I
This is day 12 of my 16-day Utah trip. I didn’t think that I’d be writing during the trip but today I’m done with all my hikes and having a break so I’m going to write some. Sitting in a Mcdonal right now (in Moab) and having a Angus burger meal (#13) and just had my Coke refilled (not sure if it’s ok or not but did it anyway)
Can’t really write anything in detail now since I wasn’t recording my activities daily, but I’ll try.
I flew to Las Vegas on the first (Aug) via US Airways and the flight was pretty good (despite the fact that reviews for this airline were pretty bad). Got off the plane pretty swiftly, waited a bit for the baggage and I was on my way to the car rental place. Had to take a shuttle to the “centralized” rental place which was pretty cool. Since I got my car reserved ahead, it was super easy to register and all that, even though I thought it’d cost something like $500 USD (says the online reservation) but the car insurance was another $500 rip off, so the total came to around $1000 
Had to do it anyway. Got my car quickly after getting into the lot, thought I’d get an American sedan (bigger/cooler looking one) but all I saw were Hyundai’s. Stupid looking, tiny, silver Hyndai Accent. Well at least it looked pretty new (had only 500 miles on it). When I drove out it was SUPER HOT, worse than baking, so had to max out the air-con, drove to some convenient store and picked up pack of 12 bottle water (smart move), some muffins and food for lunch, and headed towards my first destination - Zion National Park.
Got to Zion pretty quickly. When I drove into the park I was totally awed by the beauty and how sublime it looked, couldn’t wait to get in and start my journey. Can’t really remember what I did first or where I went first…etc, but Zion operates a shuttle (in summer months only) which takes visitors in and out the park. The place I camped at (Quality Inn RV park) was pretty close to the shuttle station so I was pretty happy (and the Zion Adventure Company was just across the camp site, where I had to rent stuff for water hike). I went to a couple view points (same for every national park that I went to, they all have view points that you can just drive to without any hiking), but the highlight was “The Narrows”. I rented hiking shoes specifically designed for water hike, and also a really long wooden stick to assist the hike. It was a “water hike” where I had to literally walk in the water/stream for many hours. It was really fun as it was something that I’ve never done before. Water level was about knee level most of the time, ocassionally went up to the belly. I had my right hand holding my DSLR camera (E-3) most of the time since it was quite difficult to take it in/out my backpack, while holding the wooden stick on my left hand. It was more difficult than I thought to walk around in water, sometimes I had to cross over rapids which was rushing really fast and I could barely move. The stick helped a lot though and without it I could have fallen into the water a dozen time (I did once only, lol) but there were people that did it without any stick, not even sure how they balanced themselves. Just as the name says there were numerous places they were really narrow, like 20 feet across and the walls on both sides went up super high, maybe 500 feet or more. Took lots of pictures of that. There were insteresting rock formations and vegetations along the way too. It took me around 5-6 hours to finish the entire hike (couldn’t go further at one point since the water would go up to my chest and my backpack would be soaked). It was truely unforgettable.
Had another super memorable hike in Zion - the Subway. Apparently I overestimated myself, like my fitness level…etc and also I wasn’t well prepared (ran out of water). So I spent almost a day doing this hike. It was hiking upstream (along the stream), but there wasn’t ANY trail, so I had to figure my way out somehow, which included climbing up/down 6 feet tall rocks (they call it boulders, prehistoric ones), trying out different routes when I couldnt go further, walking in the water (in bare feet since I didn’t know I had to so I just took off my shoes/socks hanged them on my backpack) on super slimy/slippery stones, walking in sand under direct sun (super tiring), using both of my hands to manuver my body so that I could jump across rocks of different sizes…..these are just some highlights. When I was about half way to the end point I knew that I was running out of water (I brought 2L!) I was pretty freaked as I was super thirsty due to the heat, stress, and exercise. There were a couple groups that I came across and I had asked almost all of them for water purification tablets but none of them had it. I was SO LUCKY when at one point I bumped into the guy that was lining up in early morning for the Subway hiking permit with me (yes this hike requires a permit and only 20 people are allowed per day) He was really nice that he used his water filter to pumped about 2 L of water from the stream into my water pack, he even offered to do the pumping! I was literally saved, and was able to move on. I saw dinosaur tracks on the way (as said in the guide book) it was really cool. After about 4 hours of trial and error, I reached the entrance for the Subway where there were countless super pretty red-coloured waterfalls. I finally got to the Subway but I was SO exhausted that I couldn’t force myself to go further INTO the place (I really should have though, it was very pretty inside). I laid at the entrance, had an energy bar, some water, rested for 15 minutes and started to head back. People call it feeling of solitude but I felt alone, and somehow helpless. I was just hoping that I could make my way back, with my worn out body and scratched legs/feet. Anyway as expected the way back was different. There was no way to memorize the route you use to get in. I scrambled around using the same trial-and-error methodology to find my way out. I was soooo exhausted that I was literally just dragging my souless body around. It had been a long time since I actually experienced this kind of fear. I didn’t want to be stranded there at all. I finally made my way back, but the last 1 mile was crazy steep climbs and I thought I couldn’t make it. I had to take a minute rest around every 5 steps that I make, and at one point I even had to lay down and “sleep” for about 20 minutes. It was around 7pm when I finally was able to make my way back to the car, took off the socks and shoes right away, drank SO MUCH water, and started to head to the closest restaurant to have some food. I went to the closest one literally (ended up being a fairly pricey/high-end one), sat down, ordered a coke right away (ended up ordering 3 cokes and 1 sprite), a smoked salmon salad, a chicken breast main, ended up to around $30 USD. I had never at any point in my life drank four huge cups of pop all at once. Anyway I had to take a full day off the next day due to the energy lost and fear and all that. It was truely crazy.
Good that I had this experience early in the trip, learned a lot from it like not going to force myself into difficult hikes, making sure that I always bring enough water, also trying to bring less stuff with me so that my pack could be lighter therefore easier to walk…etc. Time to leave Mcdonald now since some stupid people sat in front of me for no reason and I dun want to sit close to them. Going back to my camp site to keep writing.
Got back to the tent…so hot even though it’s cloudy. Anyway, in Zion I also *tried* to do the infamous Angel’s Landing Trail. I was there on the first day, not sure why but I failed it.. Half way up the steep slope I was out. I guess I was not in the right condition, it was my first day there afterall. Wish I got to the top as everyone says that it was awesome view up there. Anyway.
I usually cook myself for dinner, with the gasoline grill I bought back in Las Vegas (guess I can’t bring it back home since it wouldn’t be allowed on the plane ) The first couple days I had the camp food (dry freeze ones) and they were actually quite yummy. Later on I learned to buy some canned soup and ready-to-eat microwavable food as well. Also I do laundry maybe once per two days or sometimes once per day, with the $1 foldable water holder I got from a dollar store. Ohhh, one shit thing that happened on the 2nd or 3rd day, was that due to the strong wind, my tent was literally blown away! I was away from my site when it happened, and a super nice guy helped secure my tent to a picnic table with some ropes. When I was back to my site I was FREAKED. Tent was torn apart, the fly had a 1-metre wide torn up opening, and the tent itself had a few holes here and there. I checked the stuff I placed inside the tent and luckily they were still there. I rushed to the closest store at Ruby’s Inn and bought some duct tape and an axe (they didn’t have hammers). I spent like an hour to “fix” the tent with the duct tape, under direct sun, and re-setup the tent and tried to hammer all the stakes super securely to make the tent super strong. From this and on I have always been really careful setting up the tent, so far it’s been standing up pretty good in the wind.
After Zion I was off to Bryce Canyon National Park. Just 2 hours drive I believe, got there without a problem. This place was real beauty. I drove to a few view points like the Sunset Point and a few other view points. The views were stunning, full of the so-called “hoodoos” which were eroded red-colored sandstones piling up closely spanding a huge huge area. I’ve never seen anything like that before. But as usual I ran into some shit problem on the 2nd day. I was trying to do the Queens Garden trail, but somehow I missed the trailhead and went into the Fairyland Loop trail. The Queens Garden trail was supposed to be quite easy and I chose to do it since I still wasn’t fully recovered from the Subway hike at Zion. On the other hand, the Fairyland Loop trail was a strenuous one. Well I don’t know if I was lucky or screwed, the views I got from doing the Fairyland trail was CRAZY good. I got to actually walk around the hoodoos and stood up high from the ground, saw some really grand-looking white hoodoos as well. I was okay during the first half of the hike, taking so many pictures while awed by what I saw. After 2 hours or so, I figured that I was doing something wrong. This wasn’t the Queens Garden trail at all, I could tell from looking at my GPS. I didn’t bring a map for the Fairyland Loop trail so I didn’t know when or where was it going to end. I got super tired again, even though I was still full of water. I asked a couple where would the end of the trail be and they said it’s another mile to the Fairyland viewpoint where shuttle bus would stop (The shuttle bus could bring me back to my camp site). So I hiked to the viewpoint, but then realized that the shuttle would NOT stop there. Asked around and a lady (looked like a tour guide) said that the easiest way to get back is to walk alone the paved road (for cars) and it’d bring me back to the visitor’s centre where I can board the shuttle. It’s a 4km trip….but then I had no choice so I was walking and walking like a dead soul. After around 20 minutes of walking, out of surprise a guy stopped his car and asked if I need a ride! I was so happy and jumped onto the car, keep thanking him and learned that he was looking for his son. We picked up his son Andy along the road after a few minutes of driving, and the guy dropped me off at my camp site. My life was spared again by nice people 
That was the highlight from Bryce Canyon NP. Other than that I did drive to a few viewpoints like the Natural Bridge, Bryce Point (best view around there! with some stone formation called “Grottos” which looked like huge doorways), Paria View, and some other ones. They were all stunning and made me take 8000 pictures. I also tried to went into the park to Sunset Point and Bryce Point at around 10:30PM to see the hoodoos being lit up by the moonlight. It looked real scary, even though I wasn’t able to capture the views with my camera.
One thing that always freaked me out was that I always worried about locking my car keys inside the car. It’s so stupid that, even though they gave me two keys, they are held with a keychain that was soldered and there’s no way I can seperate the two keys. If I forget my keys inside the car and then lock the car I’d be 100% screwed. I’m a careless person so this is very likely to happen to me, even though it still hasn’t… This car that I got is really piece of shit. It accelerates super slowly, and then the steering is just weird, like when I turn it the car would just drags abrutly making it super scary. Also the brake sucks had to really press it for a super long time to stop the car. Also there’s no centralized lock, so I have to make sure all four doors are lock every single time when I walk away from the car! One good thing though was the air conditioning, it cools up real quick which was really helpful in this extremely hot weather.
I have to had to Moab to get some more iced tea or other drinks now since tomorrow I’d be camping at the Needles Outpost which looks like a super remote/hopeless place and I don’t think I’ll be able to get any tasty drinks/food there…lol. I’m going to write more if I have time tonight, but I doubt it since I have to get up at 3AM tonight to hike to the Mesa Arch in Canyonlands National Park to photograph the sunrise.
Related Posts:
You must be logged in to post a comment.