- Joined
- Oct 26, 2000
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- 6,104
Took my dad for some sightseeing in Utah and Nevada. He retired on Friday, April 6, and on Tuesday, April 10 we started his week-long retirement party
Lots of "challenges" due to weather and road conditions and closures. Forget plan B, I think I ended up on about plan E or F before it was all over with, but we had a great time(especially him!).
We did part of the rim trail, the Queen's Garden/Navajo loop, and visited most of the scenic overlooks at Bryce Canyon.
You're not in Alabama any more, Toto!
Dad invades the Queen's Garden:
Dad at the end of the Canyon Overlook Trail on the way back into Zion's East side. I took him to the museum, the all-you-can-eat breakfast at the lodge, and he did the Canyon Overlook, Riverside Walk, Middle and Lower Emerald Pools, and Observation Point(!) trails. The Narrows was closed due to excessive flow, but he was going to try that one with me, too. Not bad for a guy whose last hike was ~44 years ago in Vietnam!
Dad at Weeping Rock:
The end of Riverside Walk, entrance to the Zion Narrows:
From the waterfall between the Middle and Lower Emerald Pools:
Dad at Kolob-the Timber Creek Overlook Trail at the end of the Kolob Canyons Scenic Drive. I checked the weather off and on for about two months, and everything had fallen dead on the average temps, etc. every time I looked. As usual, my arrival immediately prompts a 20 degree drop in temperature, a 20mph increase in wind, and a sudden snowstorm(seriously, I'm 3 for 3 at Kolob).
Surefire Minimus Vision beamshot. Don't misjudge the output, unless you want to believe that I move really fast(it's a 4 second exposure). The light is sitting on a couple of beams behind the old cable works on Cable Mountain. I just did a quick overnight to say I'd been there, and to hike through Echo Canyon, which I always love. Didn't even get any decent pics because I got there two hours after dark, and left before sunrise to resume my role as tour guide.
Info and pics here: http://www.citrusmilo.com/zionguide/cablemountain.cfm I've yet to see another person in upper Echo Canyon, and wonder that it isn't a more popular side trip in itself.
No snow 'til the next day, but the low temps dropped from the forecast 40 into the 20s. This is normal at Kolob, but I actually expected 40s and prepared for 30s on the East Rim, my ability to alter the weather not having extended to this region before. Luckily, some intuition caused me to add a long Icebreaker top and bottom to my pack at the last minute, or it would have been a miserable night.
It's almost 1pm the next day, and I was a couple thousand feet higher the previous night. No kidding, it does this just for me. 'Cause I is special...
The wind picks up, snow starts blowing, and I tell Dad "do whatever you want for awhile, I'm going to run up to Angel's Landing". He is acrophobic, and freaks out whenever I get near the edge of anything or start climbing stuff to begin with. What? He doesn't want me to go up there in the snow. I give in, realizing I won't be able to see crap when I get up there, anyway. The forecast for the next three days says snow, and he wants to go.
So we leave a day early. We go sit in a hotel room in St. George, UT, and have the whole next day to kill.
In the morning, I check the forecast for Zion again on my phone, and it has miraculously changed to partly sunny.
So we go back.
Dad agrees to try to do the Observation Point trail with me.
So we do it. I even let him use one of my trekking poles, a sign of true love if there ever was one. I had to coach him a little, and block his view of the dropoffs if the trail got a little exposed, because of the heights thing, but he did great.
I was glad he got to at least see some of Echo Canyon, before the trail splits off to Observation Point.
Observation Point:
Dad was concerned about making this hike, but when I asked him later what his favorite part of the trip was, he immediately said "Observation Point! I made it!"
Lots of "challenges" due to weather and road conditions and closures. Forget plan B, I think I ended up on about plan E or F before it was all over with, but we had a great time(especially him!).
We did part of the rim trail, the Queen's Garden/Navajo loop, and visited most of the scenic overlooks at Bryce Canyon.
You're not in Alabama any more, Toto!
Dad invades the Queen's Garden:
Dad at the end of the Canyon Overlook Trail on the way back into Zion's East side. I took him to the museum, the all-you-can-eat breakfast at the lodge, and he did the Canyon Overlook, Riverside Walk, Middle and Lower Emerald Pools, and Observation Point(!) trails. The Narrows was closed due to excessive flow, but he was going to try that one with me, too. Not bad for a guy whose last hike was ~44 years ago in Vietnam!
Dad at Weeping Rock:
The end of Riverside Walk, entrance to the Zion Narrows:
From the waterfall between the Middle and Lower Emerald Pools:
Dad at Kolob-the Timber Creek Overlook Trail at the end of the Kolob Canyons Scenic Drive. I checked the weather off and on for about two months, and everything had fallen dead on the average temps, etc. every time I looked. As usual, my arrival immediately prompts a 20 degree drop in temperature, a 20mph increase in wind, and a sudden snowstorm(seriously, I'm 3 for 3 at Kolob).
Surefire Minimus Vision beamshot. Don't misjudge the output, unless you want to believe that I move really fast(it's a 4 second exposure). The light is sitting on a couple of beams behind the old cable works on Cable Mountain. I just did a quick overnight to say I'd been there, and to hike through Echo Canyon, which I always love. Didn't even get any decent pics because I got there two hours after dark, and left before sunrise to resume my role as tour guide.
Info and pics here: http://www.citrusmilo.com/zionguide/cablemountain.cfm I've yet to see another person in upper Echo Canyon, and wonder that it isn't a more popular side trip in itself.
No snow 'til the next day, but the low temps dropped from the forecast 40 into the 20s. This is normal at Kolob, but I actually expected 40s and prepared for 30s on the East Rim, my ability to alter the weather not having extended to this region before. Luckily, some intuition caused me to add a long Icebreaker top and bottom to my pack at the last minute, or it would have been a miserable night.
It's almost 1pm the next day, and I was a couple thousand feet higher the previous night. No kidding, it does this just for me. 'Cause I is special...
The wind picks up, snow starts blowing, and I tell Dad "do whatever you want for awhile, I'm going to run up to Angel's Landing". He is acrophobic, and freaks out whenever I get near the edge of anything or start climbing stuff to begin with. What? He doesn't want me to go up there in the snow. I give in, realizing I won't be able to see crap when I get up there, anyway. The forecast for the next three days says snow, and he wants to go.
So we leave a day early. We go sit in a hotel room in St. George, UT, and have the whole next day to kill.
In the morning, I check the forecast for Zion again on my phone, and it has miraculously changed to partly sunny.
So we go back.
Dad agrees to try to do the Observation Point trail with me.
So we do it. I even let him use one of my trekking poles, a sign of true love if there ever was one. I had to coach him a little, and block his view of the dropoffs if the trail got a little exposed, because of the heights thing, but he did great.
I was glad he got to at least see some of Echo Canyon, before the trail splits off to Observation Point.
Observation Point:
Dad was concerned about making this hike, but when I asked him later what his favorite part of the trip was, he immediately said "Observation Point! I made it!"
