April 26  – May 13, 2024

We returned home from New Zealand and Australia and immediately drove north to Oakland to help celebrate our granddaughter Gemma’s birthday, returning home the following week to catch up on all that we had missed while being gone.  I saw my GP about the hip and fortunately had a follow up with my surgeon on the other hip not long after and he confirmed it would need to be replaced.  It took some time to arrange for the surgery, which would now be May 30^th, but I decided to do as I had done with the other hip and get a cortisone injection to provide some relief until the operation. 

Unfortunately, you can’t have surgery for 90-days after an injection and this required moving the replacement operation to June 20^th.  At first the shot worked its magic but as time wore on, the relief ebbed and within a couple of months I was counting the days until the surgery.  In the meantime, we figured we’d do a low impact 21-day tour of the southwest, re-visiting some of our favorite spots during a great time of year for those with a desert climate, that is the spring. 

And so, the last weekend in April we set off for Zion National Park and its adjacent community of Springdale Utah where we would stay at the Zion Canyon Cabins.  Lodging in and around the park is quite dear and we found these accommodations to be among the most reasonable at $280 a night.  I’d been to Zion once as a boy with my parents and three other times since then with Joanna, once when Jessica was very young, once with the Sierra Club in 2004 and finally on a bike tour with Cycle America in 2005.  I can recall sitting outdoors with Joanna at a restaurant, likely in 2004 thinking about how we might come back here when we were retired and how nice that would be, free from the burdens of working.  And here we were, living that out that dream. 

We checked into the what we will refer to as the Cabins after our seven-hour drive there, with a stop for lunch at the In-N-Out in Las Vegas.  Our cabin was spacious, with a good-sized front room/kitchen and separate bathroom and bedroom.  My only complaint would be that the mattress was hard as a board and still nursing my hip, it made for some very uncomfortable nights sleeping.  With our big lunch, we felt no need for dinner and spent the evening snacking on food we’d brought with us and watching some of the streaming shows we’d been following. 

The next morning, we made our way into the park, which is easy to do because of the free Springdale Line shuttle that runs every day and drops you off at the Visitor Center just at the park’s entrance.  Here you can hit the center or any of the retail and food shops that ring the plaza.  This is also where you can pick up the Park’s shuttle which will take you to the Temple of Sinawava, all the way at the end of the canyon. 

We went straight to the shuttle stop and stood in the long line to board a coach.  Soon enough we boarded and started up the canyon.  The day was gorgeous, pleasantly warm with clear skies, perfect for hiking if one is so disposed, and there were plenty of folks dressed and ready for exercise on our ride up the canyon, many of whom would disembark at the Grotto stop, where you can pick up the trail head to Angels Landing.

It was a somewhat bittersweet ride for me as I used to be one of those folks looking forward to a good hike on a nice day, particularly when one is in good physical shape and can push against the challenge of the hike and finish with a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, one that makes that first cold beer taste so good.  Joanna departed the bus here and took off to hike the Emerald Pools trail and I continued riding up the canyon to the final stop at the Temple of Sinawava, where hikers can enjoy the Riverside Walk and the Virgin River Narrows, the narrowest section of Zion Canyon.

This gorge has walls a thousand feet tall and the river is sometimes just twenty to thirty feet wide; the hike, if one does it all is 16-miles in total with most of it, depending on the height of the river, walking through water.  Joanna and I did a portion of the hike in 1989 when Jessica was a year old, the water knee high in some spots, a challenging walk as you tried to find sure footing on the slippery rocks of the river. 

On the ride back down canyon I got off the bus at the lodge and repaired to the Castle Dome Café adjacent to the lodge where I picked up a ham and Swiss cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee for $10 to enjoy out on the patio as I waited for Joanna to join me.  It was a lively scene and worth the time spent, lingering over the coffee as I listened to all of the various accents and foreign languages.  Like any popular national park, it always seems that half of the visitors are from other countries, a testament to the natural beauty our country contains. 

I was impressed, as I have been in the past, with how reasonable the prices were for the food I purchased.  Given the high cost of housing when visiting a national park, it’s a relief that other prices are not stratospheric, indeed one would almost expect them to mirror theme or ballpark prices and yet, they rarely do.  Joanna soon joined me and ate the half of the sandwich I saved for her and then we walked to the gift shop to check it out and also, the lobby area of the lodge. 

Finished in the park for the day we boarded the shuttle for the short ride back to our cabin and spent the balance of the afternoon there, relaxing and getting ready for dinner.  That would take us back to the park on the shuttle for a meal at Zion Brewery, which we had spotted earlier in the day.  We started off with a beer apiece and then split an order of fish and chips while also consuming a house salad and a side of Fire Roasted Poblano Corn.  It was all good, about what you would expect from a brewery restaurant, nothing so memorable you’d never forget it but still filling and satisfying. 

We returned to the cabin and spent the rest of the evening watching one or two of our latest streaming faves, or perhaps a movie (hard to recall at this time).  As we’ve aged the appeal of going out at night has waned and so for us, spending time next to each other on the couch is the best way to end the day.  And we had one more day in Zion, something to look forward to. 

Links

Zion National Park: https://www.nps.gov/zion/index.htm

Zion Canyon Cabins: https://www.zioncanyoncabins.com/

The Narrows: https://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/thenarrows.htm

Zion Brewery: https://zionbrewery.com/