At Zion, they make you take a free shuttle to go up and down the canyon. I have mixed feelings about this; on one hand, it does solve the traffic and parking problems encountered at Yosemite. On the other, it forces you to sit on a bus crowded with sweaty, smelly tourists. I did take some consolation in the fact that I was probably sweatier and smellier than the rest of them.
Zion also has giant friendly squirrels. How do I know they're giant? Because they stand almost two feet tall. How do I know they're friendly? Because they let you pet them. "They" refers to the squirrels, not to Park Rangers, or good parents. But curious children walked right up to them and poked them and practically picked them up while their brain dead parents stood and watched.Disclaimer: You might be saying to yourself, "Who is he to judge; he doesn't have kids." Fair enough. If it's considered good parenting these days to allow your children to play with wild animals while disobeying National Park regulations, then prove me wrong.
A nice hike at the last stop on the canyon leads to a river where you can go swimming. Note to self: If you come back to Zion, bring a bathing suit.
After Zion, I drove to Grand Canyon National Park and got there about an hour before sunset. Under suggestion from several of you, I drove to the North Rim in hopes of avoiding crowds. It was still pretty crowded, but reasonable, considering that this has to be one of the most famous destinations in the country.The first, and really only correct reaction to seeing the Grand Canyon is "Holy crap." You can't really see across it, and you can't really see down it. It's that big. It takes your breath away at first.
I got up at dawn and took about four million pics of the sunrise while experimenting with my camera settings, hoping a few of them one come out good. Here are my favorites; I wish I could have the color depth of the first pic with the canyon detail of the second one, but what can you expect from a camera that's smaller than a deck of cards?
5 comments:
Hahaha - no it's not whether it's good parenting or not - it's just that unimportant regulations and stares from judgmental non-parents don't matter any more when you're that worn out from the 24/7 job of raising 'em.
That, and we like seeing you all twitch.
definitely an unimportant regulation... why deprive your children the opportunity to contract bubonic plague?
Disclaimer: no kids here either...
Wow that's a sobering website. Nearly 20 cases of plague are reported annually in the US! It's a menace! Thanks for pointing out my error. ;-)
heh good point :) and only 14% fatal? that's just 3 deaths a year.
still... when i was covered in fleas while out rock climbing one day it made me a little nervous.
Hmm. . .do you think one of these squirrels would feed a family of 4?
I wouldn't let my daughter touch a squirrel until she was at least 14. By then I could teach her how to properly clean it (of course, if she takes after her mom, she'll be too queasy to do it).
Seriously, I've seen tamed squirrels before (at Auburn, where we gave them french fries). I wouldn't really feed them from the palm of my hand, as they're likely to chew throw it, but petting feeding them (unless they're frothing) is generally ok if they're not too skittish to run away.
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