The Grand Canyon and Zion National Park
From Flagstaff we went to the Grand Canyon, which... well I don't entirely know what to say about that. It was just so big, so amazingly rich in detail, canyon within canyon and ridge after ridge. We sat on the South rim and looked across it for a long time, and after a while my eyes just weren't getting it anymore. You had little comprehension, just a troubling sense of immensity, to paraphrase one of the handy interpretive information boards. I didn't even try taking any pictures with my dinky little digital camera. It actually wasn't at all what I was expecting; I think I imagined just a giant pit in the ground impressive because it was a pit more giant than all the others, but it was really very beautiful, and colourful too- a lot of reds and purples and blues.
Of course the Grand Canyon is a major tourist destination so it was crawling with people who were yelling and throwing rocks at each other and daring each other closer to the edge. We became annoyed and snobby about the tourist rabble in between being awed at the natural beauty.
We intended to stay for the night in one of the Grand Canyon campsites, but having been on the road for a while the fact had escaped us that it was Memorial Day weekend, and the entire country seemed to have gone on vacation in search of natural beauty, filling up all the campsites while they were at it. Bloody people. We moved on to Zion National Park where we thought we might have better luck, but even there the only place was a free campsite (for 'free', infer: no bathroom) by the river, admittedly a nice spot. Zion is a little further north and is basically a series of sandstone-walled canyons. We looked around a bit and had short hike along the canyon. Got as far as The Narrows, which is where the canyon walls get, uh, narrow, and fill with water so you have to wade. Zion didn't have quite the jaw-dropping quality of the grand Canyon but it was very lovely and a lot more fun to spend time in.
I'm very glad we went from the Grand Canyon to Zion after all, and it was a lot quieter there too. It was still Memorial Day weekend though, and hordes of people were always a danger, as was becoming annoyed at said people. Plus at one point when wandering around it occured to us that we seemed to be the only lesbians in the entire National Park system. In fact we hadn't seen any ladies-who-like-ladies for so long that we felt very much out of the Portland gay bubble. I was surprised actually, especially in Zion I rather expected to see hordes of slightly butch-looking women wearing a lot of action wear and running up and down the trails.
Anyway, what happened next is that I got unpleasantly ill from some kind of stomach bug and spent our second day in Zion throwing up a lot in the bathroom of the Cafe Soleil, where we had holed up because it was somewhere indoors with a bathroom, unlike our campsite. Once I was stable enough to travel we went to Cedar City, and we stayed in some hotel room for a couple of days, moving very little, until I felt ok again. Kaia took very good care of me and was very sweet.
Of course the Grand Canyon is a major tourist destination so it was crawling with people who were yelling and throwing rocks at each other and daring each other closer to the edge. We became annoyed and snobby about the tourist rabble in between being awed at the natural beauty.
We intended to stay for the night in one of the Grand Canyon campsites, but having been on the road for a while the fact had escaped us that it was Memorial Day weekend, and the entire country seemed to have gone on vacation in search of natural beauty, filling up all the campsites while they were at it. Bloody people. We moved on to Zion National Park where we thought we might have better luck, but even there the only place was a free campsite (for 'free', infer: no bathroom) by the river, admittedly a nice spot. Zion is a little further north and is basically a series of sandstone-walled canyons. We looked around a bit and had short hike along the canyon. Got as far as The Narrows, which is where the canyon walls get, uh, narrow, and fill with water so you have to wade. Zion didn't have quite the jaw-dropping quality of the grand Canyon but it was very lovely and a lot more fun to spend time in.
I'm very glad we went from the Grand Canyon to Zion after all, and it was a lot quieter there too. It was still Memorial Day weekend though, and hordes of people were always a danger, as was becoming annoyed at said people. Plus at one point when wandering around it occured to us that we seemed to be the only lesbians in the entire National Park system. In fact we hadn't seen any ladies-who-like-ladies for so long that we felt very much out of the Portland gay bubble. I was surprised actually, especially in Zion I rather expected to see hordes of slightly butch-looking women wearing a lot of action wear and running up and down the trails.
Anyway, what happened next is that I got unpleasantly ill from some kind of stomach bug and spent our second day in Zion throwing up a lot in the bathroom of the Cafe Soleil, where we had holed up because it was somewhere indoors with a bathroom, unlike our campsite. Once I was stable enough to travel we went to Cedar City, and we stayed in some hotel room for a couple of days, moving very little, until I felt ok again. Kaia took very good care of me and was very sweet.
posted by susie r at 10:29 PM
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