Day 67 – Welcome to Zion!

Zion National Park – Rest Day

Yesterday I decided to take a rest day since the last week had worn me down so much and I was enjoying hanging out with Joe and Alice.  I woke up around 9 in a BED!  Joe had offered to let me borrow his car to go to Zion NP – how incredibly trusting and generous!!

I went to Cedar City Cycles to get a new mirror for the bike.  After that I grabbed some coffee at the Grind and headed to Zion NP, about a 40-50 mile drive.  Parked just outside of the park and walked in because it was pretty busy.  I’ve been amazed at how busy all the national parks have been.  It’s sometimes pretty annoying, because when you go to these incredible places you kind of expect to experience them in some kind of solitude.  I’m glad they’re busy though, because I think it says something about society if this many people are going to these places to appreciate nature.

Joe had suggested hiking Angel’s Landing, so I hopped on the shuttle and went straight to the trailhead.  Such an incredibly amazing hike.  It starts in Zion Canyon Valley and ascends up a bunch of steep switchbacks until you’re on a skinny ridge with just a chain to hang on to.  Pretty intense and I’m actually fairly surprised they still let people hike the route since 6 people have died hiking it since 2004.

Met a girl named Michaela at the top. She’s from France and went through a similar situation where she was working an office job and decided to quit and gain some new experiences. She moved to San Francisco a couple years ago and started teaching French.  Now she’s on a road trip hitting a bunch of national parks before heading home to Paris. How cool!  I love meeting other people who decided to leave their comfortable life to go on some adventure and explore new places even if it meant that they might be less comfortable in the future.  It makes me feel not as strange for doing so myself.  We hiked down together and then hiked to the Emerald Pools.

After the hike it was around 6 or 7, so I headed back to Cedar City, because I figured Joe might be wondering where his car was. Got back around 8. They had some brats, corn, baked beans, and potato salad for dinner and there was plenty left for me!  It was delicious!  Had a couple beers and talked for awhile then went to sleep in a bed for the second day in a row!

What an awesome rejuvenating day!  Just the break I needed.  Now I’m stoked to get back on the bike and crush the rest of this ride.  Just another 700 miles or so and I’ll be swimming in the Pacific Ocean!