Day Three: Zion

This morning, I went to Zion National Park.  I can safely say that this is the most beautiful, incredible place on earth... or at least that I've seen so far.  Words can't begin to express the stunning views... I'm not even going to try... and, sadly, the pictures don't do it justice.  Again, it's impossible to convey the sheer size of the rock walls and beauty.  In some of the pictures, you might find a speck that's a person, a car or a bus that I put in for perspective.

I usually love traveling by myself, but today was the first time that I wished that someone was with me.  Not being able to convey the beauty in words or pictures, I needed someone there with me to mark the moment.  The experience was unbelievable, and I just wish that I could have shared it with somone. I got really sad.

I started up one of the paths towards Angel's Landing.  Before I knew it, I the path led us to narrow walkways with no railings, winding up towards the top.  My instinct was to turn back (with my fear of heights), but decided to just have faith in the experience and I kept climbing and climbing.  Finally, after about an hour, I reached the top of the mountain... probably thousands of feet in the air... to Scout's Lookout... positioned so far above the canyon floor it made my head spin. 

At the top, I sat down to reflect on the trip up and the many vistas along the way and started to talk to an earthy-crunchy couple sitting close to me, Christie and Nicholas, from Texas and Sweden, now both livig in the west village in New York City.  Turns out they have been on a trek across the country for a month or so in their 1979 camel-colored Lincoln Town Car, freelance writing for a classic car blog (Petrolicious.com (due to be up and running sometime soon)) where people with older cars go on these adventures with their cars and blog about it and take pictures.  Starting out in NYC, they headed down to Key West, the across through Texas and on to Vegas before ending up sitting right next to me, then heading to north rim Grand Canyon and back through Vegas to go up the west coast to Oregon and then back home again.  I was in awe of them, being that traveling like that has always been a dream for me andbecause they were so cool... very outdoorsy and anti-establishmentarianistic... we had an awesome time talking and walking back down off the mountain and then to the adjacent town for dinner, where I learned more about them and the story of how they met.

You never know why people come into your life.  These two made me day.  At a moment where I was so sad about being alone, they helped mark the moment for me and made it one of the most fantastic journeys of my life... one of perseverance, overcoming fears, experiencing phenomenal beauty and taking charge of my emotions.  What a satisfying experience.  Some of these pictures mark the challenges of the path up to the top and back down again.

Tomorrow, I am going back to Zion because there's so much I didn't get to see.  In the pictures, see if you can find the people, cars and buses that are mere specks against the huge backdrop of rock mountains. Click twice for the large picture.

Waterfall

See the people?

See the people on the facing wall?

These people climbed out with only a chain to hold

Looking down from the top... see the double bus?

The winding path up/down