RoadRunnersUSA .... On the Road to Cure Leukemia!: 15th September

And into orange land we drove. It was like coming home again and the camera clicked again endlessly.. The different layers of orange and white and beige are glorious and seem to go on forever. We stopped at an RV park near the little town of Virgin right on the Virgin River. Up here the river is not really big at all - just pretty. Early the next morning we jumped in the bakkie to go and explore the Zion National Park. We drove all the way through to the East entrance of the park, stopping as much as we could to take short walks out and hear the silence and capture some of the beauty. The road is a twisty, windy, narrow and absolutely stunning drive through awesome scenery. There was a surprising amount of traffic but it flowed well and we only had a delay at the tunnel where some roadworks were happening, apparently fixing up a recent rock slide. The hills all around looked like they were, once upon a time, a huge cake mixture. Remember when we had to mix a cake from the beginning, sifting the flour, adding the salt and then it made those glorious huge folds that lay, fat, rounded and glorious on top of each other, sometimes with big airbubbles inside pushing the mix into a strange shape? Well the hills were made like that, or so it seems - huge folds of different colors rising up all over the place with determined little trees and shrubs growing in impossible places. Other hills were flat shale, or what looked like it, laying in huge slabs on top of each other, looking as if they were ready to slide right on down at any time. And then there were the "cow pattie hills" - yup, they looked just like that, only a beautiful mix of colors. The many dead trees made for amazing props for countless photos. At one place we stopped to walk, it felt as if no one had ever been there before. The rains had obviously washed some debris along and the multi-colored stones littered what looked like a little river bed. The peace was incredible, the noise of the cars did not reach down into that area and we could not see the road or any form of human input into the scenery at all. There were big cutouts or holes in the hillsides and we sat in there quietly trying to imagine what it must have been like here many many years ago. The gecko's ran everywhere - way too quick for the camera to capture. We both felt really fortunate to be able to feel this peace and quiet where we could breathe deeply and a smile just happens.

After looking at the map and info brochure that we were given at the gates, we noticed that the other part of the park is only accessible to the public via shuttle busses during this time of the year. All the main hiking trails were up that road and the views there promised to be stunning too. So we found the visitors center where we left the bakkie and hopped on the shuttlebus. These busses run up and down this park road, one arriving at each of the 8 stops along the way, every 20 minutes or so. Its free to ride the bus and you can get on and off at as many, or all, of the stops along the way. It was great that both of us could sit and enjoy this ride without having to concentrate on driving. We rode the bus all the way to the last stop which is approximately 8 miles and got off at The Temple of Sinawava. This is an incredible place where you are totally surrounded by towering orange cliffs with the river meandering through it and the most glorious of green trees, cactus and other vegetation. We took the one mile River walk to the entrance of The Narrows - this is a river hike through the canyons that I had seen on tv many years ago and really wanted to do. But not today. So we took pictures of us at the mouth of The Narrows, just so we could say we had been there......All along the path were gorgeous little places where the water was leaking from the sandstone, creating its own little ecosystem with stunning red, orange and white flowers all surrounded in glorious green. The ferns grew all over the place on the rocks giving the place an almost rain forest feel at times. And the river ran along the other side of the path. It was all muddy from the storms the day before and rushed along carrying branches along with it as it pushed itself over the stones and boulders all along the way. Numerous little waterfalls were created by big logs or rocks piled up. This is one of the last rivers out west that has not been dammed up. It really was a beautiful and easy walk up here.

The cliffs were so high up that we could look out of the windows that were on the roof of the bus and only then see the tops at times! Some people were climbing those cliffs and were only about one quarter of the way and we could only just see them. There were mule deer and wild turkeys alongside the road too. Then the bus driver stopped for a snake crossing the road. We were on the wrong side of the bus and could not see it, but apparently it was a King snake. We waited a little while until it had cleared our side of the road and then we all noticed a big tour bus heading our way - it did not stop for the snake, much to the absolute disgust of all that saw it being run over and especially our bus driver! He had tried to stop the other bus by honking and waving, but the guy just kept on going. It was only after this that we saw that the snake was at least 5 foot long. The other driver must have been half blind to have missed seeing that. Sad and everyone was quiet for the rest of the ride. We had noticed that the busses had bike racks on them and the driver had said that the park encourages bike riding on that section of road. Yesssssss!

Early the next morning, we drove back this way, loaded the bikes on the front of the bus and headed back to the Temple of Sinawava where we would start our ride back down. We had packed some snacks, water and jackets and were ready for a wonderful day! It was - it was wonderful. The only traffic on that road were the busses, and the understanding is that they will not pass us while we are moving, so every 15 - 20 minutes or so, when a bus came by, we just stopped again and enjoyed the scenery as they passed. We also made use of the time we had to do some of the shorter hiking trails along the way. The first one we did was to the Weeping Rock. This is only a short hike of about half a mile, round trip, up to this enormous wall of rock that leaks water in the most incredible way, creating a beautiful area of greenery. The water was cold but crystal clear and the wall curved over the top of our heads. It was definately a few degrees cooler under there and absolutely lovely!

We stopped many times along the way, following little paths down to the river or up into a hillside, stopped to snack on our goodies and just enjoy the scenery. Again, it was so beautifully quiet up there. We then decided to go and see the Emerald Pools. This is a longer hike and quite steep, but they looked lovely and we had plenty of time so off we went. The path is a tiny little band of orange sand that wound its way up, sometimes becoming pure rock that we had to scramble up and almost always with a drop off to the one side that churned my innards! The views down onto the Virgin River were stunning and after about two miles we came to the pools. Its strange how some places just feel different. There is a quietness, a stillness and a beauty that affects everyone that comes there. There was no loud talking, everyone sat quietly, resting or eating snacks and just enjoyed. Then one guy spat in the pool! The silence that followed that was definately felt by him and they left rather smartly after that and the general mood was restored again... it was quite funny and there were quiet smiles on many faces after the spitter left.

We took a different trail back that wound itself beautifully through more vistas and water-leaks and pretty flowers and ended up having to walk half a mile back up to the bicycles, but before we did that we found an icecream! The trail took us to Zion Lodge where there were stores to buy all sorts of goodies - we had eyes only for the icecream. It was a rediculously enormous vanilla and chocolate swirled cone icecream that froze our mouths and was absolutely superb! We could have taken the bus back up to the bikes, but the walk looked good and gentle.

And so we tootled further down the road, riding in big circles absolutely enjoying the lack of traffic and the feeling of freedom a gently downhill open road gives one. At one point I was taking a photo while riding and did not notice that Frank had stopped. That was a really close call! We could see many things that could not be seen from inside the moving bus, we stopped a gazillion times and the cameras clicked us all the way down to the Pa'rus bicycle trail. This is a trail of about 1.5 miles that keeps the bicycles off the road for the last section and leads right back to the visitors center while winding itself along the river, in the shadow of towering orange cliffs and over 5 bridges. On the first bridge, I stopped to take yet another photograph and grabbed hold of the iron railing - man, did that thing zap me! The static electricity was incredible. Frank touched it too and I saw the spark jump........ needless to say, the other bridges were crossed untouched by either of us.

As we left the trail, we could not help looking back one last time - the sun was changing the colors of all the cliffs and everything looked beautifully different again. It was an absolootle wonderful day!

I added two more albums with photographs to the website and added photos of Steven with Dr Druker and Carolyn to the "Steven and Beach" album.

Love and Light to you all

Especially U3

Annie & Frank

XXXXXXXXx