The beginning of the Watchman Hike

Doug wondered about how much hiking he would be able to do this trip, so we took it easy with a moderate two-hour hike up the Watchman trail to check out what he could manage. Hiking at child’s pace is enjoyable and includes many photo stops. Luckily many flowers presented themselves, along with a few birds.

At the viewpoint on the Watchman Hike

When we planned this trip to Zion, the hike to Angel’s Landing was on the books. It’s rated as a strenuous four-hour hike, with the last section a route along a steep, narrow ridge to the summit.

A view of Angel’s Landing in the early morning

So the next day, Doug decided that he would “stick his nose in it”, knowing that he could turn back and do it another year if it was too much. (Wendy was glad she didn’t need to “park” him at the first pass.) With a bit of planning of where to step, and some fall-back on his mountaineering skills, slowly and surely he made his way upwards. Actually, he was not any slower than most of the hikers. We kept climbing steadily and were on the summit in two hours from the trailhead, without breaking a sweat. Going down was a little more challenging because of Doug’s lack of knee flexion, but the permanent chains allowed for a quick “batman-style” descent on some of the steeper sections. We celebrated with a steak dinner, and hoped that the hot-tub and physio exercises would be enough to allow him to walk somewhat comfortably the next day.

Doug starting the upper section to Angel’s Landing

The trail down

The next day, all body parts were working; with Doug’s new knee feeling better than the left knee. After he warmed up, all was good. We took it easier and started with the mostly flat, shaded trail at the end of the canyon that gave us a view of The Narrows. We will have to come back when the water is not so high to do that watery canyon hike. We watched lots of yellow warblers and ground squirrels and also saw three mule deer.

Hiking the Kayenta Trail

After that, we took the bus down canyon and hiked the Kayenta trail from The Grotto to Zion Lodge; a hike that was in full sun most of the way. We also stopped to view the Court of the Patriarchs (which is the cover photo of this blog.) As in the other days, when we returned in the early afternoon, we woke Tali from her nap in the air-conditioned trailer. She much prefers the pleasant walks in the long grass throughout the RV park and hardly missed us.

We are now enjoying the sunshine at our RV park just outside Zion National Park. We arrived yesterday, just before the strongest winds hit. We made a quick departure from our campsite at Willard Bay, (just north of Salt Lake City), with a plan to make lunch along the way. The impending winds kept us going without a break, which delayed lunch until we got to our RV park at 1:30, which was a bit of a struggle for Wendy, but much better than being buffeted by winds. Needless to say, Wendy did not drive that day.

We took four days to get down here; the first to Missoula to stock up on food, beer and wine. The second day we drove through to Idaho Falls because the forecast for Dillon was for 3-6 inches of snow. The third day was shorter, so we arrived at Willard Bay by noon. It was chilly there, but pleasant enough until the early evening when a squall blew through and it rained horizontally. We stayed warm and dry in our trailer and watched a movie on the DVD player. By this time, Tali had figured out the trailer steps and was no longer doing her “limpet impression” and could maneuver the steps without aid of a harness.

Today we did a reconnaissance of the Zion area, and checked out the mountain bike trailheads. We will be in good shape for the next time we are here and Doug’s knee bends enough to allow him to ride. Doug has to settle for taking photographs of scenery, flowers and birds; sometimes with the flowers providing real-life stretching opportunities. When we got back to the RV park, Wendy explored Virgin, UT by bicycle (yes, almost the whole town in forty-five minutes), while Doug did his physio exercises in the outdoor pool.

We thought we’d write a blog to keep friends and family updated on where we are and what we’re doing as we travel around the countryside.

When we first named this blog, the “fox” in our name referred to our Arctic Fox trailer. Now that we have a Redwood Fifth-Wheel, the “fox” refers to our fox mascots. (Which seem to be multiplying.)

 

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