Zion

Day 12 CONTINUED: We shall call 2017 "The Summer of Fire"....will get to that in a bit. We left our incredible rafting fun and set off for my FAVORITE National Park.....ZION!!!! We've been talking about this stop with the Biscamp's all year because of their famous extreme hike, Angel's Landing. Curtis and Chris have been plotting and planning the Angel's Landing hike for months. As we set off on our 117 mile drive from Page, AZ concern began to grow as we got a viewing of how close the Brian Head Fire truly was to where we were and especially near to our destination.

We drove past the incredible display of time and erosion on the Checkerboard Mesa....

And waited our turn for the tunnel pass through the east entrance of Zion. Note to self: We had no trouble passing through the tunnel with the Casita Numero Uno, but apparently, the Casita 2.0 is "oversized". Any camper wider than 10.7' and taller than 11.3' must stop traffic in the reverse direction and go through the center of the tunnel. Our awesome Lance Camper is 8.1' wide, so we were able to drive through the middle. We passed through an embarked on the incredible beauty of Zion!!!

As soon as we pulled up to the campsite...with ELECTRICITY...we plugger her in, blew up the tubes, and hit the Virgin River!

Hello, ZION!!!!!!

We finished our evening with a rousing edition of National Parks Monopoly and the Evening Ranger Program. Good night, Zion, Good Night

Day 13: With the ultimate goal of Angel's Landing on our minds, we decided to sleep in our first morning to get rested up from the previous days of sweltering in the Grand Canyon. We woke up to smoke from the Brian Head Fire filling the canyon and watched it swell in until we could no longer see the beautiful cliffs of Zion.

The fire had started 7 days ago in Brian Head, Utah, which is less than 30 miles north of Zion from a farmer burning land for weed control and it rapidly swelled out of control. In 7 days, it has burned over 40,000 acres (about 50 square miles) and is less than 5% contained. I read they expect to keep burning out of control until at least July 5th, over two more weeks away. It is scary to think how much land this massive fire with burn.  

We rode our bikes to the Visitor Center to ask Ranger Dave/Ranger Rick questions about the fire. He said the smoke pattern had been similar everyday, filling the canyon in the cool nights with smoke, then as the thermometer soared near 100 degrees, the smoke dissipated and cleared out. That's why our afternoon driving into the canyon was so clear....Ranger Rick, you're a pretty smart dude.  Unfortunately, Schettler boys have a history of MAJOR respiratory issues....thank you, RSV and Cancer, so we hunkered down inside the Casita 2.0 with our glorious air conditioning at a cool 68 degrees and played Monopoly, read, and napped until 3:00 when the smoke cleared. 

I have to admit, this was my grumpiest day....I try to not let things get me down, but I was down right pissed! First, the Balmorhea Fire, next 105 plus degrees in El Paso AND Grand Canyon, then the frustrations of poor Mary and Stan driving 600 miles to a non-AC room and having to drive 600 miles back the next day, then the broken front window in the trailer, and finally, the probability of No Angels Landing hike this trip from smoke inhalation......oooh, I was grumpy....I just wanted to show my best friends the incredible immensity of Zion Canyon and we were stuck in the camper. Everyone felt my grumpiness....I think they still love me....hopefully. Finally, we tried to make the best of the heat situation, so we changed into our suits and hit the river to cool off and bathe.

Afterwards, we had a yummy meal of shrimp and sausage gumbo with hatch chili cornbread casserole, and finally, at 8:00pm took the shuttle ride up the canyon for ice cream at The Zion Lodge and to see the beautiful peaks of the patriarchs. If you have never been to Zion, all the peaks are named after the Patriarchs of the Bible - Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Angels Landing, White Throne, and many more.  Little Carson had been talking about ice cream all day, so we arrived there, and....of course....it was closed! Tears of sadness fell from little Carson, and we finished the 80 minute shuttle up and back down the canyon. We arrived back to our bikes at 9:30pm, and went to bed. I set my alarm for 5:00am, praying that Ranger Rick was wrong...the canyon will be clear, and we WILL hike Angels Landing!

Day 14: The alarm went off at 5:00am, and I jumped up. I was hoping for a clear canyon morning, so I opened the door and the camper filled with smoke. The smoke was 10 times worse than yesterday morning.....no Angels Landing hike for Curtis and Christi. We will try again tomorrow. Unfortunately, this hike is extremely strenuous, so it is only recommended to hike early, early in the morning before the heat is soaring and the sandstone cliffs are roasting. I've finally come to terms that Angels Landing may not happen this visit. The families did agree to hike The Narrows this afternoon, even if it means trudging up a mile in a sweltering 100 degrees to get to the famous Narrows passage and river hike. So, we went back to bed to hang in the Casita 2.0 until the smoke cleared.  At 1:00, we loaded up the bikes and set off for our 40 minute shuttle up to the top of the canyon for The Narrows. The last time we did this hike, Carson was 4 and Cole was 7. They barely made it up the 1 mile Riverside Walk to see the canyon, then turned immediately around. We promised we'd come back when they were older and able to hike longer, and they did not disappoint!

We made it up to the top of Riverside Walk and jumped into the Virgin River for our hike up The Narrows.  You can see Cole on the bottom right in red with the white towel on his head making it through the very strong current.

We pushed on for over an hour up the strong current through the winding turns of The Narrows!

These boys are getting tough!!

When the water got up to our waste (and above Carson's head) we decided it was time to turn back, but the Biscamp's kept pushing on hiking in the water another 1/2 mile into the canyon!

Three hours later, we reached our shuttle stop and we were wet, tired, and ready for ice cream, so we stopped at Zion Lodge to enjoy ice cream on the beautiful grass under the shade of the cottonwood trees.  

By the time we returned to the Casita 2.0 it was time for dinner. Tomorrow is our last day in Zion, and Melissa and I decided tomorrow is the day for Angels Landing! Fingers crossed that the smoke would stay away, Curtis and Cole went for one last evening bike ride, we went to bed, and set our alarms for 5:15 am.

Day 15: The alarm went off, I peeked my head outside the camper and.......NO SMOKE!!!!!!! Yes!!!!!!! Angels Landing was going to happen.....TODAY!!!!! I rode over to the Bis-Camper to meet Melissa at 5:50am, and we pedaled to catch the first shuttle of the day at 6:00am. By the time we got there everyone else had the same idea as us, and the shuttle line was wrapped around the building. I looked at Melissa and said, "I bet if we take the Pa'Rus Bike Trail up to stop 3 at CanyonJunction we could catch the first shuttle and squeeze on to it! Worth a shot!" So...we hoofed it and cranked up hill, and guess what?! WE DID IT! We locked the bikes and squeezed on the shuttle...SUCCESS!!!! I love Melissa, she thinks I'm totally crazy, but it worked! We were totally out of breath when we jumped on the shuttle and already sweating, but we were on our way up to The Grotto and start of Angels Landing.

We have been researching and reading blogs and testimonies about Angel's Landing for months as one of the most dangerous hikes in America and we were DOING IT! We let everyone on the shuttle start ahead of us so we weren't being rushed or pushed when it got to the steepest of steeps and started hiking up, up, up the 1500 foot 2.5 mile ascent into the sky.

We stopped for several pictures along the way to document our awesomeness.

Up, up, up we went....

This is happening!!!!

We made our turn on the backside of the canyon wall and started up the 21 steep switchbacks called "The Wiggles".

Melissa is tough! She kept pushing on!

Once we made it past The Wiggles we had .5 miles to the peak and this is where the shit got real! 90 degree canyon walls straight up with a chain and raised sandstone being the only two things stopping us from falling to our doom.  

I gripped that chain as tight as I could and pushed on....up, up, up!

Then all of a sudden the chain was gone and we had to scale our way up to the peak!

Yes, sandstone layer at a time 1500 feet above the canyon floor we crawled our way to the top!  I didn't get a pic scaling the peak because at this point I thought I was going to die!  Before we knew it...we made it to the top ridge!!!!  Yes, that's a 1500 foot drop on both sides of us.

I sat on the run for a whopping 30 seconds that was enough for me. I have an extreme fear of heights and I couldn't even look down into the canyon. Why is it called Angels Landing, you ask? Because the founder of the canyon said this peak was so high only angels could land on it....Melissa looking like an angel herself.

I glued my eyes to my feet, gripped the layer of sandstone, and climbed down inch by inch fearing my imminent death...apparently, so did this dude.

Once I got to the chain I gripped it for dear life and scaled the canyon wall.  

One of the impatient men that was hiking behind us tried to come up while I was going down the chains and I shouted, "can you please wait until I get down?!?!" I for 1, didn't want to feel rushed and 2, didn't want to have to spoon a total stranger. He appeased and we made it back to solid footing! We did it!!!!

Can you see the little people up above the trees on the 24" ridge?!  Yeah, that was us!!!

I almost peed my pants going up and down that craziness of Angels Landing, so we hit the outhouse at the top of the hill. It was the NASTIEST outhouse I have ever seen, and I've been in A LOT of outhouses....thank you, Floathouse. It was like everyone has raging diarrhea shits all over the hut. Angels Landing literally scared the doo-doo out of them. It was NASTY!!!!  After our gross venture, we set off back down the 2 miles of drop....back down The Wiggles

Back down the canyon wall

Back down to the canyon floor

We did it!!!!! We conquered Angels Landing! 55 minutes ascent, 55 minutes descent!

We hiked up to the top ridge of that beast!!!! We were on such a high we decided to keep hiking back to the Zion Lodge down The Grotto Trail another mile instead of ride the shuttle. We saw a family of wild turkeys....

And, a Mamma dear with a brand new doe.  You can't make this up!

After the Lodge, we hit the shuttle to ride back to our bikes, loaded up, road down the Pa'Rus Trail to Watchman Campground where we were greeted by our boys. They were so proud of us!  6 mile extreme hike and 6 mile bike ride was not enough for Melissa! When she got back, she set off up the canyon with her boys to hike Weeping Rock and Lower Emerald Pool. The Schettler boys weren't up for another hot hike, so we opted for an afternoon on the Virgin River. We dropped in our tubes at the entrance of Zion National Park and tubed down 3 hours with Carson and I in one tube and Curtis and Cole in the other tube.  

By the time we hit the place to exit the water we were exhausted! We rode the Riverdale shuttle 8 stops back up to the entrance of the park, walked back to the campsite, and were greeted by the Biscamp's at the shore! They had returned from their hiking afternoon 15 minutes before! We grilled burgers, laughed, and talked about our amazing trip.

Tomorrow, the Casita 2.0 heads west towards Oregon and the Bis-Camper heads east towards Texas.  This has been a vacation to remember. We cannot wait to start planning National Lampoon Biscamp-Schettler 2018 Vacation! Until then, good night, Zion, good night!