The Last Hurrah--With lots of pictures

Monday morning, at about a quarter to five, the adventure began.  Like most adventures, it began with packing sandwiches.  It continued with packing the stuff, and the packing the stuff into the car.  Then I drove to Provo, and we packed Cuny's packed stuff into the car.  Since he was moving, the car got pretty full.  We were particularly creative about where to put his massive bike in my petite car.  A 6'4" dude rides a pretty big bike.  We eventually got everything in, picked up gas, and hit the road.  For the next four hours, I made Cuny drive so I could work on my dreads.  Normally, I only spend an hour or so on them, but since I had washed them the night before they needed to be rewaxed and rolled thoroughly.  That took over three hours.  Am I dismayed about how much time the dreads are taking.  Certainly.  I'm holding out hope that all this maintenance will make them much better down the road, and that when the summer is over I won't have to waste this much time every day on my hair.  I'm not an hour-a-day-hairdo girl.

About the same time I was putting the finishing touches on my dreads, we got close to Zion National Park.  Since this was to be Cuny's and my last trip together, we wanted to do more than just run down to Tucson and drop him off.  So we had decided to spend a day or two in Zion.  Neither of us had ever been, and I was looking forward to scratching another park off my list.  Somehow, I have managed to live in Utah for seven years and not go to any of the national parks here.  In fact, for being a camper, hiker, and back-packer, I have done very little of any of that here.  I usually head up to Idaho or Wyoming or Montana with the family for that.  I've hiked in Germany, I've camped in Japan, but not in Utah.  So this Memorial Day, Cuny, Allie, and I headed to Arches National Park, and I was amazed.  I loved it.  I absolutely loved it.  So it was with high expectations that I set out to both hike and camp in Zion.

It did not disappoint.  Zion National Park is stunning.  I was snapping pictures out the window long before we entered the park, and drove Cuny nuts by stopping to take pictures every hundred yards of trail.  The first thing we did in Zion was snag ourselves a campsite at the South Campground.  South is actually in Zion, and our campsite had a great view of Watchman and was just across the bridge from the visitor's center.  Despite being so close to all the bustle of a busy national park, our campsite was replete with birds, squirrels, and lizards.  This was my first time being in charge of a camping trip.  Normally my older sister or my mother is there, and they plan the meals and pack the food and pick the location and fill out the paperwork and do all the little things they do.  This was my turn.  I was so proud of myself that I took a picture next to the post for our campsite.  We pitched my tent (the first time it's ever been pitched outside!), ate the sandwiches and oreos I'd packed for lunch, and looked over our park map, planning the afternoon's hike.

Since it was both of our first times in Zion, we decided that we needed to hike to Angel's Landing.  Angel's Landing got its name when one of the early explorers of the canyon looked up at it and said that in order get up there, you'd have to be an angel.  It's not a terribly long hike, only 5.4 miles, but you climb a long ways up to get there.  There is a section of switchbacks so short and tight they're called "Wally's Wiggles."  Additionally, it was a hot afternoon in June in the rocky desert under a cloudless sky.  The hike itself was beautiful, and I spent most of it staring up at the towering canyon walls around me, or back at the valley stretching out behind us.

After all the switchbacks and normal trail, we arrived at the most famous stretch of trail in Zion (maybe The Narrows beat it, but not by much).  The last half mile up the landing is a scramble up a narrow trail consisting of sandstone rocks that drop off quickly to the canyon floor below.  As long as you don't mind heights, it's the most fun part of the entire hike, but we passed a lot of hikers who turned back part way, terrified.  The hike is made easier by the thick chains that have been strung alongside the trail, giving hikers a way to steady themselves as they climb.

That's the trail.  Straight up that narrow ridge with drop offs on either side.

The view from the top was spectacular in all directions.  If you looked down the canyon, the way we had come, you saw this:

If you looked the other direction, you'd see this,

If you looked to the side, you saw this:

No, Mom, I'm not on the edge of a cliff.  Why do you ask?

Well worth the hike in our opinion.  After enjoying the view and drinking the last of our water, we headed back down.  Going down the chained part of the trail proved to much slower and trickier than going up it, but we managed.  Then came the two mile hike back to the valley floor, where the Virgin River provides enough water for cottonwoods to grow to towering heights.  On the way down, I managed to get some great pictures of a very obliging lizard.  I have a thing for lizards, and every time we saw one on our trip I made Cuny stop so I could take half a dozen pictures of it from different angles.

Back at camp that evening we fired up our borrowed cook stove and boiled water for dinner.  When I was planning the meals for our trip, I was a bit puzzled.  I've been on lots of camping trips and back-packing trips with my family, and I've eaten lots of camp meals from simple to luxurious, but never as a vegan.  I knew I wanted to keep things simple, things that could be cooked with boiling water.  Nothing that would require us to borrow a propane burner and bring a fry pan and wash lots of dishes.  But things like cup of noodles weren't an option because they all use some kind of animal product in their broths.  Since space was limited in the car, I didn't want to bring a cooler, so anything that required refrigeration was out.  Throw in the fact that Cuny is a picky eater, and I was a bit stuck.  I had stocked up on lots of good trail mixes and oatmeal, and was contemplating just eating that for three meals a day and bringing other stuff for Cuny.  I wandered down the aisles, reading ingredient list after ingredient list, squinting at the fine print and getting discouraged, when I found the answer.  There, on the Macey's store shelves, were upscale dehydrated soups with promising sounding flavors that were clearly marked VEGAN.  Bless their souls.  No ingredient list hunting, no wondering if the fancy calcium blah blah blah on the ingredient list was ground up bones, if the food dye was crushed up beetles, if the riboflavin came from a cow.  They were expensive, $5 for one, but the convenience of a decent, vegan meal that required only boiling water was well worth the price.

So, after a meal of udon, we watched the full moon rise up into the sky next to Watchman.  It was an incredible sight.  We played cards and ate oreos and did our best to stay awake, but we were fast asleep by about nine o'clock.  The next day we had to drive the 8+ hours to Tucson, so we only did two short hikes.  We saw the Emerald Pools, and from there went to Weeping Rock.  This is when my lizard obsession began to get out of hand.  On the trail from the Emerald Pools to the Grotto, the next shuttle stop, there were TONS of lizards!  And they were all different kinds, which meant I had to stop and take pictures of ALL of them.

The water falling into Lower Emerald Pools

Getting dripped on by Weeping Rock.

Lizard!

Lizard!!

Lizard!!!!

More Lizaard!  There were more, but Cuny stopped letting my take pictures of them. :(

After Weeping Rock we headed back to the car and prepared to say good bye to Zion.  But first, we had to drive through the tunnels.  These tunnels were built in the 1930s, blasted through the rock, and are unlit.  The longest is over a mile and occasionally opens out into spectacular views of the red rock.  It was a very fitting way to exit Zion.

So we drove, and we drove, and we drove, and we stopped sometimes for food (mostly Subway for me, their white bread is vegan), and we finally arrived at Cuny's dad's house.  There we unloaded all of his stuff and crashed for the night.  The next day we hung out in Tucson, went to the climbing gym, got Eegees, ate at a fantastic vegan Chinese restaurant, and took a walk in the Sonoran Desert.  The next morning it was time for me to go.  This was Cuny's and my fourth trip to Tucson, but this time he wouldn't be joining me on the return trip.  I'd be driving the 12-13 hours by myself, and when I got back to Utah I would be skate buddyless, and my best friend and partner in crime for the last two years would be gone.  We packed my stuff back in my car, much emptier now, made plans to skate when he comes to Utah to visit in a few months, shared a good long hug, and then I headed out on my own.

And I drove, and I drove, and I drove.  And I ate leftover trailmix and cookies and stopped at Subway again.  I drove through cities and multiple deserts, through cloudless skies and a violent thunderstorm.  I drove through a beautiful sunset, and as the last bits of light were fading from the cloudy sky, I pulled wearily into my apartment parking lot.  Unbent my aching legs, and staggered up the stairs with my stuff.  The trip was over. The Last Hurrah had been Hurrahed.