Transit to St. George
Our latest adventure had us flying in to St. George, Utah, which is literally as close as you can get to Arizona without being in Arizona. Our hotel was at Exit 4 on I-15 and the airport is at Exit 2. So, literally, two miles from the border, and the highway to the new airport in St. George, built in 2011, so very new and nice, if tiny, runs right on top of the border according to our GPS.
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We had a perfectly pleasant flight out, even though we did have to await upgrades until right before the flight. Oddly, we had the upgrades on the return segment BEFORE we left, so who knows how these decisions are made. We were something like 4 and 5 out of 54 with 12 available, so we had it made easily. We decided to try something new in taking an afternoon flight that didn’t have us getting up before dawn, which means we really don’t sleep at all the night before. It worked out OK, except we signed up for a LONG layover in Salt Lake City, 3 hours or so, which was probably a bit too much. By the time they called our flight at 10:30pm (30 minutes late), I thought I would crumple with fatigue and boredom! But it was less than an hour in the air to St. George with a call center supervisor in the seat behind us rambling on non-stop to the insurance agent in the seat next to her, for the entire flight. I could tell you a lot about both of them, their parents’ struggles with identity, their health, their businesses, and of other crap, but I think I have made the point that she loved to hear herself talk! She was endless regardless of the fact that the rest of the plane like was not likely interested. Just imagine her with a cell phone! Quelle horreur!
Mormons, Mormons, and More Mormons
It was so late when we arrived that we were reduced to foraging in a truck stop store for something to call a dinner, which was of course less than inspiring, but we survived. I couldn’t help but notice that our nice Wyngate Hotel by Wyndam, a brand we were not familiar with, was located at the corner of Pioneer and Brigham, and that, if nothing else, would tell you that you are in Utah. I think Utah is pretty famous as the homeland of the Mormons, which it isn’t really. They started in upstate New York, then got pushed to Missouri and Illinois. It was from there that they were pushed, because of persecution largely having to do with their embrace of polygamy, out West and decided for reasons that escape me, that the desert of the Great Basin in Utah would be a dandy place to settle. Granted, there is a big lake there, but it is saltier than the ocean, so that wouldn’t help. But they did it somehow, managed to make the desert bloom, likely with run off from those big mountains to the East, primarily the Wasatach. They were famously self-reliant and independent and such traits are still prized today. Of course they have now come to national prominence because of the candidacy of Mitt Romney, whom I very much hope is NOT elected, but that isn’t because of his religion, but rather the policies he is choosing to adopt in order to woo the far right, which is odd since they don’t represent any majority of anything that matters, they just make a lot of noise. I realize that many people are suspicious of the Mormons, think of them as a “cult” or other derivations of a theme, but I don’t hold any of that against them any more than I do against any religious group. I only oppose their attempts to foster hate and oppression, such as their support of Proposition 8 in California. As people, I have gone to school with, socialized with, and worked with many a Mormon person and find them in general to be delightful, polite, and dedicated. Aside from their politics, as people, I can’t and won’t fault them. Now that that is out of the way, and it really has to be considered when traveling in Utah, I can move on. Really, you wouldn’t notice much difference in your travels. You can still buy coffee, cigarettes, and alcohol in the state even if Mormons, in theory, abstain from all of them, and it wouldn’t hurt any of us to do the same I don’t suppose. We were only interested in the caffeine and the beer, so no worries!
Zion National Park
Our first destination and probably the most common reason to visit St. George, aside from the local college, was Zion National Park. Zion protects and preserves a canyon carved by the Virgin River through massive red sandstone cliffs. The presence of water means that life can bloom and thrive year round in this moist canyon in the otherwise dry desert of the Southwest. The park has wisely instituted a no automobile policy and runs frequent comfortable shuttle buses along the main park scenic route, with stops at every viewpoint and trailhead. We opted to head straight to the end of the run and then work out way back out of the canyon. At the first stop we headed off on an easy 1 mile walk into the narrower reaches of the canyon. The rock seeps, where water has percolated into the sandstone above and then seeps out lower down, are full of plant and wildflower life, especially columbines. At places, there is even adequate water for marshes to exist.
American Obesity and A Disclaimer
One of the things that surprised me about the walk, however, was the large number of severely overweight people on it. And I don’t mean a bit chubby, I mean severely obese people. I somehow didn’t expect to see them out walking a nature trail of all things, although congratulations for the movement. I realize that America is in the midst of what is termed an epidemic of obesity, and living in Georgia, a state with one of the highest rates of obesity in the nation, I am not unfamiliar with this, but I was surprised that it extended into folks visiting and walking in national parks. Perhaps that is illogical, but it did strike me as strange. And in the interest of full disclosure and to avoid claims of hypocrisy, let it be known that I am officially 13 pounds over my Body Mass Index recommended weight. There, I too am officially overweight, but again, I am not referring to people with a spare 10 pounds here, I mean more like a spare 100 or so. And further in my cause, I let it be known that from the height of a steroid prescription drug nightmare, I have lost 60 pounds and 8 pant sizes. I know of what I speak!
International Flavor
The other thing that surprised me about the visitors was the sheer international nature of them. Sure, there are a lot of Americans about, but I also heard French, German, Brits, Australian, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and an East Indian language I can’t specifically place. I had to wonder how these folks would even know about Zion Canyon National Park? I couldn’t tell you a single park in all of Europe, much less design an international vacation around them, so there must be some level of knowledge, or at least information resource in the rest of the world that clues folks in to our national treasures. I was glad they were enjoying the sights as much as we were.
Cottonwood and Other Flora
As you travel through the canyon of Zion, your constant companion will be the cottonwood trees. These trees were once known as the “trees of life” because they always indicate the presence of a water course, which is invaluable information as you cross the desert. The trees can only take route in a moist sandy bank, like the edge of a river. Older trees can be seen dying along now dry river courses after the river has carved new paths in the frequent spring flash floods. The trees were in full bloom at the time of our visit, meaning that we often walked through dense clouds of cottony airborne seeds. The sight is rather magical. We chose a perfect time to visit in that many wildflowers and trees were in full bloom. I should imagine that in a few more weeks, if that long, the scenery would be far less colorful and less green as well as the year progresses and becomes drier and drier. Some of the waterfalls in the park, only a few of which we saw, are only present for a few scant days, or even hours, as the meltwater runs down the canyon walls, not to be replaced until the next year’s snows. You can spot the watercourses, even when dry, from the black stains of dissolved manganese and other minerals that are left behind on the otherwise iron oxide (rust) red colored rocks.
Hiking A Trail
Along the way, we decided to ditch the shuttle and take a hike a bit higher along the canyon by way of the Kayenta Trail. If you know us at all well, we probably don’t seem like hikers, and really we aren’t, although in my younger days I enjoyed camping in tents, cooking outdoors, and hiking in the mountains and deserts. However, times change, and camping to me now is a hotel brand I am not familiar with, say the Holiday Inn Express or something like it. But we tackled it anyway, with only a 100 foot gain in altitude, I figured we could manage. We have to be careful of Tim’s wonky ankle, which once gave out in San Francisco, but there I was able to walk to a convenient Walgreen’s and get a brace. We still travel with that brace and it was very uselessly located in Tim’s luggage at the hotel, a nice 2 hour drive from where we actually were. As luck would have it, he maintained even footing and we had no mishaps. It was a lovely 1+ mile hike that took us through the Emerald Pools area of waterfalls and seepage complete with a marsh and very noisy frogs (listen to the video/audio file on Flickr).
Kolob Canyons
We left the main southern section of the park and took a short cut back out to Interstate 15, so as to intersect with the northern section of the park, the Kolob Canyons drive. In the main part of Zion, you are at the bottom of the canyon, although still several thousand feet above sea level. In Kolob Canyon, you climb up over 6,000 feet fairly quickly to get a much more aerial view of the canyon systems that make up Zion. The views are breathtaking and panoramic and you won’t have a lot of company up here as most visitors don’t make it to this section. Tim is still a bit sensitive to altitude after his pneumothorax and surgery, and he could definitely feel the altitude, but a return to more modest heights put him right again!
The Road to Bryce Canyon
The next day we headed back through the main entrance of Zion and traversed the Zion tunnel, a mile long path blasted through solid rock back in the 1930s when this type of road construction was rare. It was work admirably performed by the Works Progress Administration of the Roosevelt New Deal. As we worked our way through the tunnel, we couldn’t help but wonder why, in these times of economic crisis and record unemployment, that we don’t reinstitute some of the ideas from the 1930s that put people to work and provided much needed infrastructure improvement and development. Everyone benefited from the programs it seems to me and I have to believe that eventually we will come to understand that strict austerity fails in times of economic crisis, as we are seeing so clearly with the European Union crisis (thank heavens for BBC satellite radio in the otherwise silent Southwest!).
The eastern side of Zion is much drier than the west and the foliage is markedly different. The road continues along a high plateau north and west until you reach the fork in the road where you either head north to Bryce Canyon or south to Arizona and the Grand Canyon. We had hoped to include the Grand Canyon in our trip but the road the North Rim opened the day after we were scheduled to leave. The round trip to the South Rim would take over 10 hours and transit through nothing but polygamist compounds and that was simply too much. So, as planned for day two, we headed instead to Bryce Canyon National Park.
Bryce Canyon
In Zion, you are at the bottom of the canyon looking up, whereas in Bryce Canyon, you are at the top of the canyon looking down and in from heights as much as 9,000+ feet above sea level. We had not considered those elevations before planning the trip, so after Kolob Canyon and the effect of 6,000+ feet on Tim’s lung, we were cautious, but as it turned out, the climb was slow enough that no problems ensued. Bryce Canyon is most notable for the sandstone formations known as hoodoos, which are best described as sculptured stone towers, but really, you have to look at the photos to really appreciate them.
The shuttle in Bryce Canyon is still voluntary and since it doesn’t penetrate to the farthest reaches of the canyon, we decided to drive ourselves since the crowds were minimal this early in the year. We had considered that the high desert can be cold at night and we dutifully brought jackets with us, which were nice and cozy in the hotel room while we discovered how cold it can be at such elevation with a nice crisp wind blowing. And we only packed shorts to boot. And it started to rain. We were not prepared and we ended up not hiking some trails we might otherwise have done, but ultimately other than some rushing about to keep warm, we didn’t suffer unduly. Lesson learned: carry the jacket and umbrellas in the car even if you don’t think you need it. The same goes for lens wipes as can be seen in some of the video footage of the canyon. We needed to de-smudge a bit but were not quite prepared. Sorry about that!
We went back north along US 89 until cutting over Utah 20 to rejoin Interstate 15 south back to St. George. We had suffered through a hideously overpriced and wretchedly tasteless lunch just outside the park and then “discovered” a Brazilian steak house in St. George that we thought would be delightful since we have so enjoyed them in Brazil and in Atlanta. Well, the first thing they brought was ham, so we kind of knew this wasn’t going to be a red letter experience, which it sadly wasn’t. AAA might have approved the place, but we gave it two thumbs firmly down. You just don’t travel in Utah for the food. But the Cold Stone Creamery ice cream was delicious afterward!
Las Vegas Bound
We had investigated pretty thoroughly what to do on day 3 of our journey. Since we couldn’t drive to the North or South Rim of the Grand Canyon we checked into flying there from Las Vegas. We discovered that with rare exception those trips only visit the West Rim which is an Indian concession and not the actual National Park. And the prices were as steep as the incline of the aircraft to get there. We were not enthused about that, but we were also not intending to try to make St. George an interesting place for an entire day. So, instead, we took advantage of only being a two hour drive from Las Vegas!
Las Vegas is a place I struggle with. At first, it sounds fantastic but then I get there and lose the $20 I am willing to gamble, and then I am totally over it. Fortunately, we discovered a same day ticket sales office and checked it out in the new mall built right on the Strip. The line was depressing and Vegas was over ninety degrees hot with no breeze, so we paid the $25 to jump the line by buying a VIP pass good for line jumping for one calendar year. We ended up buying discounted same day tickets to David Copperfield at the MGM Grand and for Cirque du Soleil Love: The Beatles at Treasure Island.
I like a really good magic, or illusionist, show and I am sure there is a technical difference. I willingly suspend my disbelief and enter into the fantasy, realizing that there is a rational explanation for what occurs. David didn’t fail to impress with illusions ranging from a disappearing duck to a “magically” appearing car, motorcycle, and disappearing 13 members of the audience, inarguably chosen by random with giant beach balls bouncing in the audience. He even had a trick that included sending images from the “future” to our cell phones. It was truly magical to me. Tim went along with it, but these types of shows frustrate him since he is nothing if not a logical realist. He refuses all mystical explanations for anything and it frustrates him to know that there is a reason for what he is seeing but that he is denied the knowledge of how it works.
Cirque du Soleil is either something you know about or you don’t, but no words of mine will ever capture the pageantry, majesty, and sheer wonder of what they can pull off time and time again. I have seen many of their shows in Las Vegas, all but one of them in fact, and I would rate this one in the top three easily. It wasn’t as acrobatic as many of their shows are, but it was still wonderful. You don’t have to like, or love, Beatles music to enjoy the show, but I would say that if you really hate the Beatles, you probably shouldn’t go since the whole show features their music and recordings of outtakes from recording sessions and interviews.
Wrap It Up and Return
The show ended at 11pm Las Vegas time and by the time we travelled back to St. George and moved our clocks forward one hour for the time adjustment between Nevada and Utah, it was after 2am and we had an 8am flight. Let’s just say we napped a bit but didn’t really sleep much. True to form, we were at the airport early, 6:30am and discovered that while TSA was there, they wouldn’t actually do anything but sit about on the other side of a locked glass door until their designated opening time of 7am, one hour exactly before the first Delta flight. Of course there was no Millimeter Wave Scanner at this location, so my artificial hip set off the alarm meaning I became intimately acquainted with, or I should say a TSA officer became intimately acquainted with me. I so wish we could use the European method of just passing a wand over my hip and letting it go at that, but instead I get the full treatment. I am convinced they would miss a real threat, so intent are they on harmless medical implants! I can’t imagine what the day shift does all day since there is no other flight until after 1pm. Sit about and suck up a Federal salary is my guess. All told, for such a nice and cute new airport, St. George still only sees five flights a day, four with Delta to Salt Lake City and one to Los Angeles with United. It seems unlikely that a crowd will develop anytime soon.
The flight back was easy as could be and I slept through it all, which was fortunate since upon landing we had plenty of orders to attend to. I returned home renewed in my admiration for our National Parks and the system that manages and maintains them. They are well worth the $25 admission fee and I hope to continue to enjoy them for many years to come. Next stop however is not in the United States, but rather in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, which is of course the best country on the planet Earth! Travel to Canada means we will use the new International Terminal at Hartsfield International Airport, years in the making. See you there.