Sunday, March 21, 2010

Saturday, March 20th, 2010 - Zion National Park - hiking and biking



































































Note: The picture of our bike with the mountain in the back ground and the "Life is Good" is for all our biking friends!
We woke up to a clear bright sun shiny day - about 40 degrees. John decided to do the Angel Landing hike and I decided to do laundry and then hike up to meet John. John started out hiking about 8:45AM and it was a beautiful hike, outstanding scenery, very exhilarating, and very little snow left (only in shaded areas on the mountain top). There were about a dozen other people at the very top of Angel's Landing with John. John asked someone to take his picture and then he recipricated by taking their picture for them. For anyone that enjoys hiking under extremely exposes conditions (exposed to drop off and cliffs as much as 1200 ft) - this is the hike that he would recommend. Extra panoramic views from the top and a great place to reflect on life. The hike up took John about 2 hours and 15 minutes - the hike down about an hour and 10 minutes. I met John by Refrigerator Canyon and then we decided to go back down so we could go biking.

Although our biking mileage has been rather limited we feel that today's biking has made up for the hassle of having to transport our bike 3,000 miles. Today's 34 miles were some of the most beautiful scenery on the face of the earth, as far as we are concerned. Once again the sun was shining, the Virgin river flowing alongside the road, and the beautiful scenery made for an incredible bike ride.

After biking the entire corridor, twice, we drove it and realized that you don't get to see nearly as much in a vehicle as you do on our bike with no vision restrictions. We also saw a number of men rock climbing on perfectly vertical rock as much as 1400 feet above the road way. Today's bike ride was one of the finest rides we have had in all of our 11,000 miles of biking on our tandem.

In the evening we got cleaned up and took a walk downtown to a restaurant and had dinner. After that we were tuckered out and content to go back and spend the rest of the evening in our room. Tomorrow is another day! We have decided to drive to Page, Arizona to take a tour out to Antelope Canyon!


One of the things I wanted to add, as I was walking up to Refrigerator Canyon to meet John I had stopped on one of the switch backs to catch my breath. Here comes a little oriental gal (probably in her early 60's) walking around the corner and she was out of breath. I said hi and said it's a tough climb huh! She commented, yes, I am trying to jog up it and it is very hard. Here I had been feeling sorry for her. Anyway, she then started to jog up the switch backs and I felt rather stupid. lol Later in the day as John and I went biking in the corridor we passed her several times and she was still jogging. I commented to John that she must be Forest Gumps mother (Run Forest Run). After we were done biking and loaded up the car and heading back to the hotel we came upon this same gal jogging alongside the road. We stopped and I asked her how many miles she had jogged or walked that day and she said once she gets back to the lodge she will have done 21 miles. I could not believe it - I mean she was jogging up the switch backs to Refrigerator Canyon/Scouts Landing and then when she came down she went jogging on the road. What a amazing person! I have added her picture to our photo gallery!

Happy Trails!

1 comment:

  1. You two are awesome! The pics and stories of Angel's Landing brought back great memories for us and biking that narrow Zion road must have been amazing. Loved the shot of the Screamer in front of the sheer cliffs of the park. I can't wait to see what you think of Bryce.

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