TRAVEL: NEW ZION NATIONAL PARK GUIDEBOOK AND CONSTRUCTION UPDATE JULY 2010

Zion National Park has a new guidebook dedicated to the wonders of Utah's most popular park, the Zion Adventure Guide.  Published by my former employer, the Zion Natural History Association, this new guide is the latest publishing project by ZNHA Executive Director Lyman Hafen as a collaboration with local author Greer Chesher and local designer Sandy Bell - people you can trust to steer you in the right direction when it comes to experiencing Zion.  This new book includes detailed maps, trail descriptions and a guide to the ZNP/Springdale shuttle bus system.  It also includes profiles of local residents sharing their favorite activities in and around Zion Canyon.  Available for $16.99 from the ZNHA website, by calling Tammy or Toni at the ZNHA warehouse at 800-635-3959 or at the visitor center stores in the park, this is a worthwhile investment for park visitors.  Remember that the Zion Natural History Association is a non-profit fundraising organization for ZNP and sales proceeds directly benefit the park.

Zion National Park is suffering the Curse of Construction this summer as extensive work is being completed on Highway 9 that runs through the park from the south entrance to the east entrance (though Zion Canyon is not affected).  The original ambitious daytime work schedule released in May 2010 that had the road closed for hours at a time has been modified by park management to overnight road closures only.  Kudos to Superintendent Jock Whitworth and staff for addressing the issue with flexibility and genuine visitor service.

Superintendent Whitworth stated, “We have been working with the Federal Highways Administration, area businesses, and the contractor to set a schedule to reconstruct the 80 year old Zion Mount Carmel Highway section from the switchbacks to our east entrance.  We feel that the new schedule should still allow us to complete the project before winter, allow visitors to travel to and through Zion, and allow local businesses to fair well during the reconstruction process.”

Road construction is painful no matter where you go (just ask Yosemite!), but particularly so for the narrow, winding, often mountainous roads of western national parks.  See the schedule below for road closure information:

If you do visit Zion this summer during the Curse of Construction, be sure to cool off and fill up at one of my favorite Springdale restaurants: Oscar's Cafe, Cafe Soleil or the Flying Monkey.  Dining in Springdale is not cheap, and all three of these eateries offer great, and sometimes exceptional, food at reasonable rates.  The Flying Monkey opened as the newest restaurant in town next to the newly relocated Sol Foods Market with fabulous wood fire brick oven pizza like this:

After dodging construction, the southern Utah 100+ degree temps and eating pizza, you can also cool off by tubing the Virgin River - one of my favorite activities in Zion Canyon (and Yosemite Valley).  Though tubing is not allowed inside the park, you can rent tubes from outdoor stores in town (or bring your own) and float the river through Springdale.  The perfect summer activity for stymied park visitors, floating the river gives you a new perspective - and appreciation - for one of America's most breathtaking landscapes.

Photo from the Zion Adventure Company BlogJunket Ratings:

Zion Adventure Guide: Junk in the Trunk!

Flying Monkey Restaurant: Junk-O-Rama

HOME/TRAVEL/FOOD: RELOCATING FROM ZION TO YOSEMITE

WPA Zion National Park poster from Ranger Doug's Enterprises

Going back to Cali.  Almost two years ago I left my home in Yosemite National Park to take a job with the Zion Natural History Association at Zion National Park in southern Utah.  My husband, Ted, stayed behind in Yosemite and we travelled back and forth a lot.  We explored Utah and tried canyoneering, stillwater rafting and mountain biking.  But now it's time to go back to the Sierra.  After one last hike on the Chinle Trail, we packed up our cargo trailer and left the wonderful house in Rockville to the next tenant.

Last snow at the Rockville house February 2010

Spring flowers on the Chinle Trail ZNP March 2010

The Chinle Trail gate from private property to national park where Fleabag could not pass. Mt. Kinesava in the background.

With truck and trailer we braved high winds in the desert from Utah through Las Vegas and into California.  We were too early for wildflowers in the Mojave National Preserve and we had to skip the Calico Early Man Site (which Ted referred to as the "Old Man Site").  We landed in a place I've come to know well from my journeys between Zion and Yosemite: Barstow.  But first, we stopped off in Baker, home of the World's Largest Thermometer, for some jerky:

The next day we stopped for citrus, as has been my habit on this particular road, at Murray Family Farms between Tehachapi and Bakersfield.  The Tehachapi Pass is one of my favorite drives in California because I am fascinated with wind turbines and Tehachapi has 5000 of them.  The pass can be beautiful with wildflowers or snow, and the Murrays' Big Red Barn market always sells tasty items, regardless of season.  I loaded up on navel oranges, blood oranges, grapefruit and limequats - a hybrid of kumquats and limes that actually looks like a mini lemon - perfect for cocktail garnish.  Further down the road into Bakersfield we stopped for lunch at Tacos La Villa:

Tacos al Pastor and Carnitas

Tacos Birrias and Lengua (goat and beef tongue)

Spring in Yosemite is dank and dark, but when the time is right, I know where to find morel mushrooms and wild asparagus.  

It's good to be back in California. 

Junket Ratings:

Alien Fresh Jerky: Junk-O-Rama

Murray Family Farms: Junk-O-Rama

Tacos La Villa: Junk-O-Rama

HOME: HURRICANE MESA SUPERSONIC TEST TRACK! MARCH 2010

Travel any road in the West and you may see sinister things - black SUV caravans, trucks hauling huge unrecognizable equipment, military caravans, large tracts of fenced off land with razor wire and "trespassers will be shot on sight" signs.  Our government has always done a great deal of it's dirty deeds in the West - particularly in the desert - the Nevada Test Site and the labs at Los Alamos, New Mexico come to mind.  So I was not surprised to learn, upon moving to southern Utah two years ago, that a secret military testing facility exists outside Zion National Park.  However, after much speculation, I understand the purpose of the Hurricane Mesa Supersonic Test Track is not quite as sinister as say, Roswell or Colorado City.

Hurricane Mesa, just outside of the town of Virgin, is home to the only privately-owned supersonic test track. Currently owned by Goodrich, the track was built by the US Air Force in the 1950s to test ejection seats for supersonic jet fighters.  The 14,000 foot track runs along the mesa, where dummies would be ejected from the test cockpits as it barreled over the edge.  According to the Utah Historical Quarterly journal from Spring 1966, "In a typical test the rocket sled was hurled along the track at a speed of 1,050 miles per hour, or Mach 1.3, carrying the seat with a dummy strapped to it.  The dummy was a highly instrumented anthropoid simulator named 'Hurricane Sam'."

 

Photo courtesy of the Washington County Historical Society

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Utah Historical Quarterly Spring 1966

Testing for NASA's shuttle program took place in 1987.  According to the NASA Johnson Space Center digital image collection website:

"Shuttle crew escape systems (CES) tractor rocket tests conducted at Hurricane Mesa, Utah. This preliminary ground test of the tractor rocket will lead up to in-air evaluations. View shows tractor rocket as it is fired from side hatch mockup. The tractor rocket concept is one of two escape methods being studied to provide crew egress capability during Space Shuttle controlled gliding flight."

Though Ted thought we were actually going to see the test track, driving up Mesa Rd. from the town of Virgin off Highway 9 only provided us with magnificent views of Zion National Park and the Hurricane Valley.  We explored on foot to find the start of the Flying Monkey mountain bike trail and found petrified wood being harvested - a trench dug with a backhoe revealed two intact logs that had had sections removed, likely for revenue opportunities.

Snow visible on West Temple in Zion National Park

HOME: ZION NATIONAL PARK SNOW DAYS FEBRUARY 2010

 

HOME: ZION NATIONAL PARK AND ROCKVILLE FEBRUARY 2010

Michelle at Canyon Overlook ZNPMy mother-in-law came to visit me in Utah.  For a week.  Fortunately, unlike you, I really like my in-laws - they're fun people.  So my mother-in-law Wenche (pronounced "Venka" in her native Norwegian) came to visit me in the desert and see Zion National Park.  I warned her that Zion is very quiet in the winter; most Springdale businesses are shuttered and nightlife is non-existent.  Not to worry, she said, we'll have a great time.  She even pronounced Zion NP more beautiful than Yosemite NP (ooo, sorry Ted!).  And we did have a great time: the winter weather was sunny for her visit and we made great meals and conversation.  We hiked the Chinle and Canyon Overlook trails in Zion and visited the ghost town of Grafton, just 5 miles from my home in Rockville.  

Wenche and Fleabag on the Chinle trail ZNP (first mile private property)

Wenche was tickled to discover that Grafton was the filming location for the bicycle scene in "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid".  We visited the town and then later watched the scene on YouTube:

Grafton cemetary