Dadcation
I have a National Parks bucket list, and hiking The Narrows and Angels Landing at Zion National Park have been near the top of said list for at least as long as there’s been an Instagram. We concluded our tour of the Utah National Parks with visiting my most anticipated of the 5: Zion. We arrived in the evening and parked by a deer-filled lawn before checking into the Zion National Park Lodge, where I recommend staying at any time, but during Covid-19, I highly recommend it, as…
I’ve had some amazing experiences at the 33 U.S. National Parks I’ve visited: rock climbing in Yosemite, biking through snow above the Grand Canyon, paddling under snakes at Congaree, hearing a ceremonial flute serenade at Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde. At Bryce Canyon, however, I had 2 experiences that rival the best of the best. Like Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon is an international dark sky park (it got the designation in 2019). Fittingly, one of the ranger-led activities one can choose is a guided constellation tour, so we…
We awoke at Capitol Reef, Utah’s least visited of its 5 national parks, and had a lousy breakfast at Pioneer Kitchen before going by the visitor center for junior ranger workbooks and hiking the 2.25-miles-each-way Grand Wash trail in the bottom of a canyon with 800′ sandstone walls. It was hot as Hell in July, but it included cool graffiti from the 1800s where folks in covered wagons carved their names into the rock, but you can’t add your own, because there are cameras and signs telling you…
We stopped at Lin Ottinger’s Moab Rock Shop on our way out of Moab, where we saw dinosaur fossils and gems from all over the world strewn about dusty shelves both inside and outside the store. A Japanese man interviewed the elderly shop owner as a lighting crew and cinematographer followed. We were just there so my 11yo could get a souvenir gift for his best friend. I picked up petrified wood book ends for my paralegals’ office. Forty minutes later, we pulled into Dead Horse Point State…
We flew into Salt Lake City on July 4 and headed south to Arches National Park early on the 5th, bunking in Moab at the Gonzo Inn. We stopped by the park for junior ranger booklets and to pull over at a spot that allowed me to take a photograph I took with my Kodak Disc camera in 1987, and I can’t tell which one is better, but here’s the one from 2020: It’s called Balanced Rock, and I’m pretty sure why. My bride suggested we do what…