April 7 – “An ‘Oops Discovery’”

We now have a new second place hotel.  A close second place.  Ruby’s is still on top based on sheer entertainment value.  But the hotel from the next night was brand new.  Even had a motion sensor in the bathroom that turned on the light.  Only thing was, it also turned off the light.  While I was in the shower.  Oh well, it was a fun challenge to finish showering in the dark.  And better yet.  I never mentioned that interesting quality to Chris.  I didn’t want her to miss that experience.  She didn’t.  Chuckle.  Chuckle.

 

We went back to Zion.  This time early in the morning.  There were no lines at all.  Plenty of places to park.  As far as hikes go, we did a fairly easy two miler and a really easy one miler.  The first one was a walk along the river in the bottom of a canyon.  River.  Water.  Beautiful water.  It has been too long.  It was a pretty fun hike, too.  Aside from the breathtaking views straight up the sides of mountains and along the banks of a kind of muddy, but angrily flowing river (They had to close one of the hikes because it required crossing the river at one point and that was currently almost impossible), I met a guy from Idaho who knows someone who used to live in Galveston.  That unknown Galvestonian played guitar for Kenny Rogers.  Pretty famous for an unknown guy.  We met a family on the bus who had just moved to Utah from Austin.  Still haven’t gotten used to the winters.  Ah, people.  High points – mine at least - usually involve people.  On the second hike we met a guy who told us his wife tells him all the time to stop and smell the roses.  I said that was good advice, but sometimes I couldn’t find the roses!  Oh, on both hikes we saw a group of mule deer.  The first time they were romping and playing and chasing each other.  The second time they were having a snack right next to the path.  Obviously not afraid of humans.  All in all. Zion is a pretty good place to be – physically AND spiritually.  We did hit a snag on our way out of the park, though.  Something happened that caused a 30 minute plus holdup at the tunnel.  We never got an explanation.  I think it might have been an alien infestation of large bugs from the planet Cromedia.  They don’t get many bugs in Utah, so that was a big deal.  In Texas we would just think they were mosquitoes and squish them, however big they were.

 

We finally made it through the tunnel and headed to Pipe Springs National Monument in Arizona.  Oh, and we also saw a herd of bison along the way.  Just gathered on the side of the road.  I’m pretty sure they were voting on who would be the next one to pretend to go berserk and stamp and charge at the tourists.  The National Monument was actually a reconstructed ranch.  Brigham Young ordered it built back in his day to serve as the tithe receiving station for Mormon livestock tithes.  They had a Texas longhorn and some chickens on site.

 

Next stop was Marble Canyon.  Yeah, I never heard of it, either.  But on the way I saw a lone coyote walking along the side of the road.  Poor lonely guy.  The big draw in Marble Canyon, other than the canyon, was a walk on the Navajo Bridge.  It’s a giant steel structure over some river on the Navajo Indian Reservation.  Pretty impressive feat of engineering.  There are actually two bridges.  One for cars and one for walking across to take pictures of the first one.  Guess they had some leftover steel.  At the visitor center we heard more about the big project in the area (it was a biggie in Zion as well).  They are attempting to save the California condor from extinction.  It is alleged to be the largest bird in the United States.  We finally got the message.  At the visitor center we decided to adopt one.  Calcey Condor now lives with us.

 

Our final stop was actually at the closest hotel we could get to the Grand Canyon.  It was in a little town called Page, Arizona, about two and a half hours away.  Yikes.  However, it turned out to be a fortuitous accident.  Come to find out, Page is the home site for the Horseshoe Bend overlook of none other than the Colorado River.  A little piece of home.  Now that was a beautiful, unexpected sight.  The river makes a literal bend around a huge, protruding piece of the mountain.  We could see people camping on the shore after arriving in canoes.  At least we think they were people.  It is certainly possible that the distance to the bottom could have been an optical illusion, and what we were seeing was more of those pesky alien creatures.  But it was still amazing.  And to top it off, we saw it right at sunset.  Gorgeous.  Worth the “Oops Discovery,” for sure.  Now we just have to hope that we can still get into the Grand Canyon today after a two and a half hour drive. 

 

Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

Father, thank you once again for the incredible beauty of your creation – natural and humans.  Amen.