Temples and Sacrifices

The Temple of Sinewava, the Altar of Sacrifice, the Sentinel, the Watchman, the Great White Throne, the Court of the Patriarchs; such are the names of stone formations found in Zion National Park. These formations tower high above Zion's canyon floor, making it seem as though the Grand Canyon was taken from its foundation and placed on top of the ground some 150 miles north.



We arrived at the park around 6:00 PM, just in time for the best sunlight to play off of the giant red, orange, white, and black structures. Driving through the park immersed in the golden rays is one of the best hours you could spend in your life. It is truly indescribable.

That night we camped out in a little campground just outside the park to the north of the Springfield, UT post office. Dinner was Easy Mac, about the best worst easiest meal you could put on living out of the back of a car. Funny thing about mac-n-cheese: it is good for about five bites and has you thinking, "hey, this isn't half bad" but then you get to bite six and you realize that it has been playing you the whole time and it really sucks. At least that was our experience. But no matter, the campground offered complimentary 8-minute showers, giving us two little tokens at sign-in. So after dinner I took off and headed up to the restroom/shower area to enjoy my 480 seconds of wet bliss. I entered the first shower stall and decided to test it before inserting my token. With much joy I soon discovered that the shower I chose did not require a shower token even though it was supposed to. After about 20 or 30 minutes I returned to camp, satisfied with my longer-than-expected experience. Richard found his experience to his liking as well. :)

In the morning we headed into the park to check out the sites. Zion does not let you drive a car into the main part of the park, so we took one of the every-6-minutes shuttle buses up to Weeping Rock. Exiting there, we proceded up a 200 yard trail to check out Weeping Rock, a rocky overhang where water seeps down over the course of 1200 years and finally leaks out of the overhang, creating hanging gardens and a cool haven. Suffice to say a 200 yard trail was a stark contrast to the 9 mile+ trails we had been on. After that we headed up to Hidden Canyon, a narrow slot canyon with huge cliffs on either side ending at a free-standing rock archway. The trail up was steep and long, but provided great views of Big Bend and Angel's Landing. For part of the way, the trail is basically 3 feet wide, chiseled into the side of a thousand foot cliff with nothing but a chain to hold onto. Awesome.

Later on in the day we hit up the Emerald Pools. Emerald Pools is a series of three tranquil reflecting pools, the highest of which is fed by water seeping through yet another rock overhang. While we were up at this pool, we were getting a little bit tired of simply walking everywhere. There was a trail which led up to the top of a 500 foot cliff starting at the pool, so we decided to charge up it and see what was at the top. Right on the edge of the cliff, there was a man with a little stand of climbing equipment. For $10 the dude would let you rappel down this freaking huge cliff. So I looked at Richard and he looked at me, then I looked back at him and him at me, and we said "you bet your sweet boopie we're gonna rappel. So we did. The picture shows me descending the last 100 feet or so. If you are ever up there, you HAVE to try it. You will NEVER regret it.

Thus our adventures ended for the day. The next day we headed up to the Temple of Sinewava at the top of the canyon to a place called the Narrows. This is another slot canyon that the Virgin River runs through. All the way through the canyon, the river flows a mere two to three feet deep, a perfect trudging depth. So trudge we did, right up the center of the meandering Virgin River in the shadows of stone giants. The cool river felt nice in contrast to the warm Spring-Summer day.

After traipsing up and down the Virgin River (causing it to be devirginized? :/ ) we departed the mormonic landscape to seek cooler and higher adventures. Zion treated us well, though, and for that we were grateful.

Grace and Peace,
-Josh and Richard

PS - we didn't actually rappel down that huge cliff, those were other guys.
PPS - my ~!@#$%^&*(ing tooth fell out our first night in Zion whilst I was flossing.