I escaped Sin City...Springdale, Utah

To what I owe the luck of having been invited along this past weekend to escape Las Vegas with Moria and her mom, I do not know...but I am forever grateful and blessed by the experience!

A while back Moria mentioned to me that she was thinking of escaping Las Vegas while we had the time off there and going to Utah to hike. Would I be interested? she asked. I'm always up for an adventure, so it definitely peaked my interest. Moria said she'd been to Vegas before, and trust her, it's not somewhere you're going to want to spend that much time in. Boy, was she right.

I remember Utah from our drive cross country. I loved the sky and the skyline. Well, that was mearly a taste of what there is to discover in this beautiful state. When Moria worked for Utah Shakespeare festival, she and her co-workers would travel to Zion National Park on the weekends for 100 degree hikes through the park...particularly a place called the Narrows. The Narrows is a hike in the park that is through water. You walk in water mostly up to your ankles or calves, but sometimes all the way up to your armpits (where you have to hold your bag over your head to keep in dry). This hike is best done in the summer months when it's so hot that being in the water is refreshing and welcomed. I will come back to do that hike this summer...it must be done.

Moria, her mom, and I traveled to Springdale and settled into our Quality Inn less than a mile from the Zion entrance on Friday evening. It was about a 3 hour drive from Vegas, but beautiful the whole way. We zonked out at around 10pm which was AWESOME. We woke up 8, had some breakfast, and caught the free shuttle to Zion. We walked the Emerald Pool trails first(stepping in some lovely, pottery worthy mud along the way...yummy), then we walked a trail that took us to the edge of where the Narrows are (what a tease...must come back). The hikes were magnificent. The rock, orange. The sky, blue. The leaves were changing color for fall, and the result was breathtaking. What a contrast from the Vegas we had so eagerly left behind. We hiked for nearly 5 hours, and it went by in a flash.

That evening, after heading back to the hotel to change clothes, we headed to Cedar City, where Moria had worked at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. They have a little Globe replica (very neat), and we ate at a little "pub" (although there was no alcohol served) and then headed home.

We decided, since we had done all we wanted to do at Zion, that since the Grand Canyon was only about 2.5 hours away...why not go see that, too! So we departed early and drove through the park and south to the Grand Canyon's North Rim (supposedly the less frequently visited rim, but the more beautiful). We walked to various vistas and gazed at the majestic canyon for a couple of hours before departing for the 5 hour drive back to Vegas (the only way back was back through Zion)...we got to say goodbye to Zion, or more like "see you again soon" as the sun was just starting to think about setting...the light was perfect for our "till me meet again".

Moria's mom and I knit as we drove back to Vegas, she tried to show me how to "turn the heel" of a sock, and we all stopped and grabbed some fish tacos at the Del Taco for our one last cheap meal before heading back to the money pit of Vegas.

What a special experience to see the beauty of our own country. I've seen beauty like this in Wales, Scotland, England, but never here. The kind of beauty that puts everything in perspective and makes you feel small (you're right Moria, it is a good thing). This is the best part of tour; having the time to see these things I've always wanted to see, and being giving the resources to get there to see them. I am lucky. I am grateful.