I've been camping and hiking in Zion National Park since I was a wee lass, but despite my family's apparent obsession with that place, this was my first backpacking trip. It did not disappoint. We took the East Rim trail and camped on top of Deertrap Mountain; which is the peak right next to the Great White Throne, for those in the know. The trail was a long one, about 9.5 miles to where we pitched our tent. The view was spectacular. I do not think I have ever felt more secluded while still being able to see so many signs of civilization. You could easily see the Zion Canyon road, the Emerald Pools trail head and even parts of Springdale, but from such a height that you still felt completely removed. Thunder clouds chased us for most of the day, but luckily it did not start raining until after the sun set and we were snuggled in our sleeping bags and dry in our tent.
Here we are at the trail head near the East entrance of the park. My brother was nice enough to come down and be our shuttle driver and to take a picture of us.
Here's Myke standing near our campsite with our pet thunderstorm right behind him. You can click on the picture to make it bigger if you want to, Myke's mustache says: you know you want to.
More gorgeous red rock and more thunderstorm. Heck, there is even more mustache.
Looking down the canyon toward Springdale.
A nice view to wake-up to.
Cue single tear.
The other side of that tree is basically cliff.
Exhausted and headed down the Observation Point trail to the shuttle, our car, lunch and then a long drive home and finally, a shower.
6 comments:
Jealous!!!
Did you miss the part about 9.5 miles? Are you sure you are jealous?
Ditching the kids is always a good thing but it is amazing how quickly we miss them. Looks like an amazing trip! Your pics are beautiful. We hope to do Zion next spring. We can't wait. Course we are no back packers, hiking and back to the trailer each night is more my style.
There is no problem with the hike and trailer method. I'm a huge fan of trailers and wish like crazy we had one.
Also, you'll notice I only did the backpacking thing one night, more than that is a little tougher to do.
You didn't have to the cue the tear for me, I was crying at the first sight of red rock. ...or maybe it was whenyou siad you ditched the kids. What could be better, no kids, red rock, and a backpacking trip. We've got to figure how to work out a trip like this with you guys.
Love the pictures, that looks like a ton of fun.
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