Fievel Goes West: Bryce Canyon to Las Vegas

Our last few posts have detailed our travels and our time spent and experiences gained at Hell's Backbone Grill. Since that time, we've traveled to Bryce Canyon NP, Zion NP, Las Vegas, Santa Barbara, Carpinteria, Sequoia and Kings NPs, Yosemite NP, Berkeley, San Francisco, Kentfield, and finally Napa. A lot has happened since leaving Utah, and blogging has been relegated to the back burner for the past few weeks. We're finally making time for more posts again, and we hope to get back into the rhythm of regular posting from here on out.

Because we have so much time to cover, we're going to break up the last month or so into a few posts and try to salvage as much of our experience from the depths of our memories as possible. Starting with our first week after HBG:

Our first stop was Bryce Canyon National Park. It's famous for its wide array of colors and for its hoodoos (pronounced like voodoo). Hoodoos are huge rock spires whose shape and colors are a result of different minerals changing effects of erosion. We hiked through Fairyland Canyon. The trail head was very crowded, but the trail itself was nearly empty. We learned quickly not to stress about big crowds in the national parks; all we needed to do was walk a 1/4 mile down a trail and they would disappear. We hiked 8 miles, saw some spectacular hoodoos and canyons, had a run-in with a rattlesnake, and got to bed early enough to catch the sunrise in the morning.

The next morning we awoke at about 5 am, joined the masses to watch the sunrise at Sunrise Point, and immediately hit the road towards Zion National Park. Despite a 2 hour detour, we managed to get a backcountry permit for a 3 day hike on the West Rim Trail. Few of Zion's 4 million visitors a year make it onto that trail, which made for a peaceful hike.

The West Rim Trail offers great views of the famous Zion Canyon and, for the most part, is relatively flat. Flat for the hike out to our first camp, that is. We put in about 9 miles, made camp, and realized we did not bring nearly enough food. Making matters worse, our a misstep knocked over our pot full of dinner. We ate our fill on day 1, but had very little left for day 2, and would have to hike the 9 miles to the car on day 3 with only a granola bar each. We filled a daypack with all the food we had in preparation for the next day's 12 mile hike to Angel's Landing, and went to sleep under the stars.

Day 2 was where the big elevation change came in to play. It did not take long for us to realize we had a HUGE hike in store for us on the second day in Zion. We got about 2 miles out before getting into some very intense downhill switchbacks. We kept going down, and down, and down, constantly acknowledging that we would have to hike back up at some point. Eventually the trail flattened out, and we approached the crowds preparing to hike Angel's Landing. Neither of us had seen a trail like it. According to the National Park Service, "The route to Angels Landing involves travel along a steep, narrow ridge with support chains anchored intermittently along the route. Footing can be slippery even when the rock is dry. Unevenly surfaced steps are cut into the rock with major cliff dropoffs adjacent" The route was only a few feet wide at times, with 2,000 feet of sheer cliffs dropping off at either side. It is probably one of the most dangerous hikes in America, but rewards its visitors with one of America's most spectacular views.

After taking in the scenery, we reluctantly started back to camp. We had to hike 6 miles, uphill. We learned later this trail has a 2,200 foot elevation change, meaning the trails highest point was nearly half a mile above its lowest. We ran out of snacks and water, and had to take a lot of breaks. It was easily the hardest hike either of us had ever done, and we had just enough energy left at the end to cook dinner, filter some more water, and crawl into our sleeping bags.

The next morning we hit the trail as soon as possible. We had a tough 9 miles ahead of us, but we were rewarding ourselves that night in Las Vegas. We were staying in a hotel which meant our first shower in a week, our first real bed in a month, and more food than we'd eaten in days. We were going from being completely immersed in nature to the so-called Entertainment Capital of the World. The only thing that remained the same was walking; we walked about 10 miles sight-seeing which brought the grand total for the day to 19 miles. We slept in the next morning, got in the car and headed towards Santa Barbara, California where we would be vacationing with Carrie's family for a week.