on the way

Zion National Park is the most photogenic place in the world. Really. It may actually be impossible to take a bad photograph there.

And if anyone tries to disprove that statement by pointing to the blackish photo with a big splodge of white in it towards the end of the album, let me just say that that is one of five windows blasted in the side of a 1.1 mile tunnel that was used for dumping out the debris from the drilling of said tunnel in 1930, and I was traveling at about forty miles per hour when I stuck the camera out the window to try to capture the experience, so don’t give me any lip. You’re lucky it came out at all.

(Those who know me well can imagine the relief I felt at seeing those periodic windows amidst the blackness. 1.1 miles is a long way, y’all.)

Anyway, back to the park (of which the tunnel is, admittedly, a part)…

Zion is gorgeous… the cliffs, the trails, the wildlife (well, maybe not the giant black beetles as big as my thumb… but the rest of it was cool), the campground (right in the shadow of the Watchman — what a cool back yard!), the lodge, everything. What was most interesting to me is that, although it is in the desert (and, in fact, the cliffs are basically fossilized sand dunes), there was so much water…. look through the photos and probably half of them involve water in the form of the river, a waterfall, a seeping rock, etc. The Southwest has been in a drought for about eight years, but this winter and spring are making up for it in spades — 28 inches of precipitation since October, when the norm is 12-14 inches in an entire year! While everything was lush and green, it did have the unfortunate effect of making the cottonwoods produce huge amounts of cotton-wrapped seeds — it was piled in foot-high drifts all around the campground. Made my eyes itch a bit.

It was also hot. 100 degrees F on the first day I was there. Slightly cooler the second day, which isn’t saying much. Of all the campgrounds I’ve stayed at so far, this is definitely the one that needs showers… and doesn’t have them. As it turns out, I can, in fact, wash my hair in a bucket. Just in case anyone was wondering.

(Oh, and here’s your moment of zen.)