Day: May 18, 2017

Pic: Desert bighorn ewes with a lamb. Zion NP, UT

I think East Zion was my favorite part of the park (other than Angels Landing, but that’s not really fair). Similar architecture and views as the main canyon, 5% of the population, and space to actually get off a ten foot wide paved trail and explore. I wandered up and down the slickrock canyons of Many Pools for hours, marvelling at the bizarre layers of sedimentary rock and startling the frogs and polliwogs hanging out in the puddles where rainwater remained.

After years of hiking through their poop and tracks, I finally saw desert bighorn sheep — two ewes with a lamb. I tried to inch closer for a better photo but, in spite of my stealth and abundant grace, as soon as I stepped into the open they’d had enough of my shenanigans and bolted.

Pic: Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway. Canyon Overlook, Zion NP, UT

With Angels Landing summited, there was little left to do but exit to the east en route to other glorious Utah parks. On the way, I accidentally encountered another brilliant achievement in civil engineering, the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway and Tunnel. Using Roaring Twenties technology, two federal and one state government organization collaborated with four private road crews to build a 25-mile road over slickrock, up sandstone cliffs, and 1.1 miles through the side of a mountain in two years and ten months. They even built windows:

Pic: The dark feature just below center is a two car-length by two person-height window into a 1.1 mile tunnel through the side of a 6200′ mountain. Zion NP, UT

Theoretically the tunnel is large enough to allow two-way traffic, but in practice the number of RVs touring this part of the country in mid-May means that the tunnel sees a lot of alternating one-way traffic. Rangers are therefore employed as flaggers, and the one on the east side looked bored so I asked her about accomodations in Mt. Carmel Junction vs Kanab. She confirmed my suspicions: “For one thing, Kanab has a grocery store,” she explained.

She also confirmed that Kanab rhymes with Donovan MCNABB, the town of Hurricane is pronounced HURRIC’N, and Zion rhymes with LION — not ION — and is definitely not plural or possessive (apparently “ZI-ahnz”, as if the park belongs to a guy named Zion, is a common mangling).