Old school ural...we saw a few of these driving by at the expo. Reminds me every time of "Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade"

The prelude to our Utah trip was a short, windy ride up through Flagstaff, stopping briefly (one night) at the Overland Expo at Mormon Lake. Adventure riders and top tents abound; Dan took a picture with a ural (left); and we saw a presentation by Austin Vince on his trip through the Sahara. All in all a fun night, and Dan and I left the next day feeling adventurous at riding through Utah.

Utah has five national parks. We decided to take a jaunt through all five, on the motocycle, camping most of the time and maybe getting a hotel a couple nights to shower and freshen up. This plan started to go south by about the third night. Motorcycling in 30 mph crosswinds with the V-Strom for even just 50 miles was enough to over-tire us, not to mention camping and hiking most days in each park. We quickly realized hauling all the camping gear on a top-heavy bike with gusty conditions (the weather channel said it would calm down, but it didn't) weren't the ideal conditions we were hoping for to get anywhere fast and enjoy our trip. After Capitol Reef NP, we decided to abandon the camping idea. We shipped our gear back home and continued on to the next park with hotel reservations the rest of the trip. But I'm getting ahead of myself, that's the later parts...

Zion was the first national park on our radar and I think our consensus is that, even after four more NPs, we like Zion the best of the five. This could have had everything to do with it being our first of the five: we were excited to get to hiking and camping. Or perhaps because it was cooler and more versatile in its topology than the other parks.

According to National Geographic, Zion is the 8th most popular National Park in the nation. I'm not surprised it is in the top ten. Dan and I spent two nights camping here, and we tried to select the best hikes to get the most out of the park. I think we succeeded. Zion is probably one of the best national parks with a Southwest flavor...I will reserve judgement on my favorite national park until we visit Denali.

We rode into Zion and set up camp. It was packed but we were able to snag a "group site" with a few other folks. This is what greeted us at the campsite table...

Angel's Landing Warning"Since 2004, six people have died falling from the cliffs on this route..." — Angel's Landing Warning
"Since 2004, six people have died falling from the cliffs on this route..."

Probably harmless, but a lone locust is still a very strange site. The legs are huge! Anyway, we set up the tent and hammock (something that Dan has been wanting to try out) and headed off for a hike.

Angel's Landing was the first hike we undertook. It has been designated the most dangerous hike in the park, probably in all of southern Utah. This rather intimidating label only fits the bill if you are deathly afraid of heights or at all unstable on your feet. Parts of the hike, once you climb up several hundred feet consist of trails etched onto a cliff edge with drop-offs on both sides.This may sound ludicrous, but the park put in place chains and steel poles bolted into the rock, to help you climb to the very top of the outcropping that is Angel's Landing.

The views are spectacular from this trail. You get a good panoramic view of the park and the shuttle road to the various hiking trailheads. Angel's Landing Trail is only about 2.5 miles, but there is a lot of scrambling over rocks required.

Here are some of the breathtaking views. Pictures really don't do it justice though.

Double-sided cliff Climbing along the "knife-edge" — Double-sided cliff
Climbing along the "knife-edge"

Once at the top, we stopped for a snack, much to the delight of some relentless chipmunks. There was also an annoying group of teenagers thinking it would be fun to try to pet/feed the chipmunks because "They're soooo CUTE!!" Yea, they're adorable. Right up until the point they bite off your hand.

Yea, you think you're smart don't you. Well we did accidentally let a chocolate chip fall to the ground. This little guy sniffed it out immediately. — Yea, you think you're smart don't you.
Well we did accidentally let a chocolate chip fall to the ground. This little guy sniffed it out immediately.

The hike was worth it though; and still probably one of our favorites of the trip. I would highly recommend for anybody visiting Zion. In case you haven't had enough yet, here are some more spectacular views.

You can barely make out the scrawl of the trail

After the hike we headed into Springdale for a large dinner and then back to the campground to relax, start a fire, and drink whiskey. Dan set up his hammock and wanted to spend the night in it. Apparently, he really finds it really comfortable. I am willing to try it myself sometime; I'll need to get one! Of course, you have to be camping in a place with relatively close spaced trees -- so, no camping above the tree line, like in our CO 2012 trip.

The next day was our last day in Zion. We did a couple of short hikes, short in terms of mileage, the last being a wonderfully wet and beautiful trek through "The Narrows." The Narrows is a trail that follows the North Fork Virgin River; "follows" is a bit of an understatement though, the trail itself IS the river. You have to wade through the shallow river for most of the hike. Some parts of the trail are on the dry land of the river bank, mostly sediments and rocks that have built up near the bends in the river.

The Narrows hike had quite a few people trodding through the waters, and you can follow the stream as far as you want. We followed it until late afternoon hoping to get to the fork in the river, at Orderville Gulch where the river splits into a west fork and an east fork. The trail starts off at the Temple of Sinawava (we found out later that "Sinawava" is supposed to refer to a coyote: "Coyote God of the Paiute Indians" Wiki: ZNP), the last shuttle destination on the Zion Canyon drive, and there is about a mile of paved trail called the Riverside Walk before you get to wading through the river. Overall, this was definitely one of my favorite hikes of the entire Utah trip. Here are some of the views.

You can see how shallow the river is at some points

Just gorgeous!
Once back on dry land we caught the shuttle back to camp and relaxed by the fire with some well-deserved whiskey. Treading through water makes you more tired than you would think! The next day we headed to Bryce!

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Zion National Park