Saturday, July 5, 2008

Zion N.P.

Pilar marches to the beat of her own drummer as we descend the Emerald Pools trail in hundred degree heat. Although not seen in the photograph, there were hordes of other tourists besides ourselves, but of them, many were european. We saw a lot of dutch or german families with cool glasses. The propane powered buses were nice; if only they would do that in Yosemite. Speaking of Yosemite, Zion struck me as Yosemite "lite" because it's the same model i.e. people enter, stay, and frolic in the valley and there's a loop road in and out. Difference is, Yosemite feels like a bajillion times larger. So Zion had less of the "nature-disney" feel.
My partner who has already been named forgot to bring any utensils. So in order to eat my Annie Chung udon noodles, I fashioned a couple of chopsticks out of twigs, which made me realize my kinship with the chimps.
Sticks in my mouth. Yummy.
This beetle was hanging out by the river. You can see a drop of water in its left armpit. Zion was of course breathtaking, but the daytime high was 107F, which was pretty brutal. It didn't cool off until 1am. So do NOT go there during the summer. We stayed at the South Campground but ants were everywhere, including inside our tent. I awoke encrusted in ant corpses from an all night toss and turn slap fest. Below is a video of me climbing bunnyhop v2 or vo. The two holds on the face are drilled. Makes sense b/c they feel like limestone pockets but it's a sandstone face.

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