Day Twenty - Canyon Galore
// August 16th - Red Canyon, Bryce Canyon National Park & Zion National Park // Distance today: 492 km // Total: 2571 km //
It's becoming a routine to get up and leave while it's still dark outside. I passed the Red Canyon again, dipped in the beautiful light of the rising sun. I'll never get used to seeing colors like these.
Usually, you never really know the beauty of a National Park until you actually enter it.
It looks alright from the outside, but after passing the gates a whole new, magical world of the wonders of the nature surrounds you.
So, the Bryce Canyon National Park surprised me. Huge red canyons, rocks in wondrous and bizarre formations like stalactites, clear blue sky. Still, I knew my schedule was quite tight, so I started right away and hiked a combined trail.
Maybe 30 minutes later, I met one of the employees of the park, who was hiking the trail before starting work. He taught me about the 'secrets' of the National Park - how the formations were created and that the Native Americans used to call the groups of tall, stretched rocks "Hoodoos", which related to the word Voodoo. At night, the rocks and their dark shadows appear to be people, soldiers, standing in groups and guarding... well, that's up to your imagination.
But also besides talking about the National Park, we had a great time chatting about everything under the sun. When traveling alone, you will always meet amazing people.
And how another author fittingly described - you get that "lone wolf" aura. You're comfortable being alone, seem strong, like you don't need anyone - so, considering my personal experience with that, I noticed that people tend to tell me more about their life than I could ever imagine back home.
Complete strangers talk about their private life, like you've known them forever. And for some reason, it never feels weird or inappropriate.
Because I guess it has something comforting, doesn't it? You can basically say anything you want, talk about what's really on your mind and get an opinion that is truly impartial. No one will get hurt, no one is judged, and even if that would be the case - if you don't want to, you'll never see that person again.
Anyways, after showing me some other great viewing spots in the National Park, he went to work and I strolled around for a bit, but left soon afterwards, heading to Zion National Park.
I stopped in the middle of nowhere at a German Bakery (they had Flammkuchen!) for lunch and continued my journey.
Zion National Park - it will literally blow your mind. It's not comparable to anything that I've ever seen before. I wasn't even able to take a picture that would show at all how impressive the landscape is. Seriously, it doesn't look so special at all in the photos I took.
I guess it's about the dimension of the mountains, also the shape and color, but primarily the enormous size of the mountains left and right, it just left me utterly speechless.
When entering the park I was listening to the "Appalachian Morning" by Paul Winter, and since I connect some precious memories with that, I had tears in my eyes and stopped in awe at the side of the road. Surrounded by the colors red and green, with the mountains rising up hundreds of feet above me.
I hiked two trails - a very short one to the "weeping rock", where I was able to walk behind a filmy waterfall dripping down from some rocks. The other trail lead up to a little lake by the foot of one of the mountains I reached after an enormous amount of stairs. Well, not like the 3000 up to Machu Picchu, but still. I passed a few other falls, but since it's summer, most of them were pretty drained.
Still, I was amazed by the beauty of this park. It was too bad I didn't have the gear (nor the permission) to hike The Narrows, one of the most amazing trails I could ever imagine to hike. But at least that's a good reason to come back!
I got back to my car right after it got dark. Well, time to figure out where to sleep...
I tried to check the campgrounds close to the National Park, but also somewhat on the way to Death Valley, but some were deep down in a forest (I wasn't eager to find my way there in the dark), others had to be paid for (actually quite a lot), and after this day, I also really wished to take a shower.
So, next step - looking up hostels, hotels and motels. Whoa, pricy! But then another idea popped up in my mind. There was a place, less than two hours away and on the way to Death Valley National Park, and I've been there once before...
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