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I got a few days off so Diane and I decided to go down to
southern Utah for a
few days. We went by to visit our friends, Tom and Jan who
have a house in
Hurricane Utah. We went for a hike along the Virgin River
and came across a
desert tortoise. It is indigenous to the area but not too
often seen. It was
smaller than I had expected but maybe it was a baby. That
afternoon we drove to
Springdale, Utah, just outside Zion National Park. It was
not the busy season
yet and we were able to find a cute little motel called
Flannigans. It had a
shaded courtyard and was quiet and serene. After checking
in, we took the
shuttle into the Park and got off at Weeping Rock. We hiked
up to Hidden Canyon
and the afternoon sun warmed us up as we ascended the steep
trail. We entered
the shadows of Hidden Canyon and enjoyed the cool air. We
misjudged the amount
of water we should have taken and got a little thirsty on
the way down. It was
back to the motel for a quick clean up and then to the
Spotted Dog Cafe for
outside dining and a great meal.
The next day we decided on an ambitious hike to the top of
Angel's Landing. It
doesn't sound too bad "on paper": about 2 1/2
miles one way with a 1600 foot
elevation gain. It starts out OK but each segment got more
arduous. A pleasant
walk along the Virgin River turned into a steep uphill that
got us breathing
hard and saw us making several stops to "enjoy the
scenery"! Again, it was
warming up but as soon and we make a turn into a canyon, the
cool air coming
down from Refrigerator Canyon cooled us down. We traveled
along that canyon
until we got to the infamous Walter's Wiggles. That was a
serious climb of
multiple switchbacks that got us up to Scout's Lookout. This
is also where the
West Rim Trail merges with the Angel's Landing trail. We
were now looking at the
knife-edged fin of sandstone that leads to the summit of AL.
It is so steep and
narrow that the Park Service has installed chains along the
route to cut down on
the number of dead bodies that they have remove from the
bottom! After a long,
difficult and scary climb to the top we reached our goal and
documented it with
a few pictures. We had to be careful coming down for now our
legs were tired and
shaky and we still had to worry about the the 1000 foot drop
offs on either
side. Well, we made it down and when we got to Refrigerator
Canyon we looked up
canyon and saw 3 California Condors riding the thermals up
above. As we
continued down, we encountered a volunteer ornithology
ranger who asked us if we
wanted to see a Mexican Spotted Owl. She lent us her
binoculars and we got to
see the bird nesting on the ledge of sandstone. What a
treat! That is when I
came up with the term, Wildlife Trifecta.
On this trip we saw a desert tortoise,
On this trip we saw a desert tortoise,
California Condors and a Mexican Spotted Owl. Some people go
their entire lives
without seeing any of these things and we got to see all
three in one trip. We
hiked down and caught the shuttle and went back to
Springdale. We had dinner at
the Bit and Spur that night and slept very well. The next
day it was back to
reality.
