The Rico Petersons' California Adventure: Zion Canyon, AKA Mukuntuweap Canyon, “Land of Straight Up”

Indian Paintbrush, one of the many wildflowers in bloom

Sasha finds a convenient sandstone seat

Utah has the Fabulous Five National Parks: Zion, Bryce, Capitol Reef, Arches, and Canyonlands. Zion was first on our list, after an uneventful night at the RV Corral and Sasha’s pick of Pizza Hut for dinner. An all-Native-American baseball team, complete with cheerleaders, arrived and scotched our dessert order of a chocolate chip cookie pizza. But the pepperoni pizza was good!

Working off the pizza on Zion's trails

We arrived into Zion Canyon early the next morning, coming through the narrow eastern entrance and through the mile-long tunnel. The original native name for the canyon was "Mukuntuweap," meaning, "Land of Straight Up." The red sandstone cliffs rose above us, living up to its native name, as well as its nickname, “Yosemite With Color.”

Glorious color

Because we got there early, we scored the second-to-last campsite at South Campground, a lovely spread amongst the cottonwoods next to the Virgin River. The Virgin was running too high for us to walk the most famous hike, up the Narrows, a slot canyon carved by eons of water where you hike in the river itself, in water-hiking-boots.

Todd loves the sandstone

But there were plenty of other exciting hikes. We spent the afternoon on the River Walk, gaping at the canyon and enjoying the river, especially after our monumental Grand Canyon hike with no river achieved.

Loving the water all around us

We then hiked up to Hidden Canyon. Todd saw the path along the sloping red cliffs, with chains to hang onto so that you didn’t slide to your death. He balked. “Someone fell off of one of these chains and died just last month. I saw the YouTube video,” he told me. And so I acquiesced, much to the annoyance of Tia and Sasha.

Off-limits Hidden Canyon

Angel’s Landing is perhaps the most famous and certainly the most dangerous and deadly hike in Zion—nine deaths since 2004. Leaving at 5:45 am, we rode our bikes to the trailhead and had the zigzaggy path all to ourselves. We hiked the famous switchbacks named “Walter’s Wiggles” to get to Scout’s Landing, which was scary enough. A narrow sandstone-slanted, again with chains, led up to the angel part.

Looking down on the Wiggles

They are impressively steep. And this is the easy part!

Apparently, just before the top, you hike across a narrow ledge with immense drops on either side, assisted by a chain to hold onto for dear life. We demurred, along with a guy we met who has tried to make the climb eight times before. He cannot get himself across that ledge.

The scariest hike to the top

But there were plenty of other incredibly beautiful hikes. We hiked over to Emerald Pools and marveled at the waterfall; much of the water coming out of the sandstone actually travels through the more porous layers of the cliffs until it meets a more densely-packed layer. Then it travels to the cliff edge and pours out, seemingly out of nowhere. Weeping Rock was a lovely example of such a phenomenon.

That's me at the bottom of the falls

Sasha performs

That evening we went up the Watchman Trail, which overlooks the campgrounds.

From the top of The Watchman

The shuttle service keeps Zion effectively free of cars and was a delight, winding through peaks with biblical names such as Isaac, Jacob, and Abraham, the three Patriarchs. We used it the following morning, catching the first shuttle out at 7 am for Observation Point, another 200 meters above Angel’s Landing. You look down at the valley floor, the Virgin River snaking through it, surrounded by the reds and yellows and whites of the vertical cliffs. Again, we had the trail to ourselves.

Echo Canyon heading to Observation Point

Overlooking Angel's Landing

A chipmunk appeared as we ate our sandwich breakfast, then another, then another. It’s a $100 fine to feed them, but Sasha could not resist. In seconds we were surrounded by six little guys, each one more daring than the next.