The next morning we went out shooting with Uncle George. It was difficult to choose which guns to fire from his arsenal, but we settled on the M-16, the Uzi, and the .45 1911. TONS of fun! It was Erica's first time firing an Uzi.
We then set out on a hike to Charleston Mountain with Pepper, their dog. There we saw 4,000-year-old bristlecone pine trees, the oldest trees on this planet. It was very awe inspiring to be in the presence of beings that could live for such an unfathomably long time in this high, dry place. Their appearance was extraordinarily pleasing as well. Shaped and gnarled by the winds, the twisted trunks appeared to be the offcasts of an ancient taffy-making god as he learned his trade, and they laid as they were strewn until this point in eternity. I found a dead one that lent itself to climbing and got as high as I comfortably could in the rock-hard limbs. What a view. I could see Vegas maybe 60 miles distant in the valley far away, and had to muse about how few people probably even knew this place existed, much less experienced it. I climbed down and broke a small piece of wood from one of the exposed shattered roots and took a sniff. It had a surprisingly deep, rich scent! Only slightly of pine but overpoweringly woody, it was so intoxicating that I couldn't take it from my nose but only took deeper and deeper inhalations. If you've ever smelled freshly exposed cedar wood then you know what I'm talking about.
The four of us hiked back down, Pepper cutting all of the switchbacks as he had done on the way up.
Saturday morning we packed up the vehicles and small camper dubbed "The Casita" in preparation for Zion National Park. We managed to get a small campsite on the edge of the park high in the mountains and had a wonderful time there together. I grilled some Italian sausage over scrub oak and aspen coals, the two most prolific trees in those hills. Aunt Joanne made the most delicious vegetable tomatoes sauce I've ever had which we poured over our spaghetti, then cut the squirt-you-in-the-eye-juicy sausage into it. We finished with some fruit that we picked up from a local fruit stand that operated on the honors system (grab what you want, leave the money).
After dinner we spent long hours into the night listening to the fascinating stories that Uncle George and Aunt Joanne had to tell about their wild lives. Bookworthy stuff, for real.
Erica and I spent the night under the stars, despite the possible presence of mountain lions. Unfortunately the moon was too bright to see many stars. I slept with my big knife.
The next morning we had eggs, prosciutto, leftover steak and pork, fruit, and bagels. I found a whole lot of rose hips around our campsite and collected the ripest of them, which we made into a palatable, nutrient-dense tea. Then we headed for the main part of the park.
If you don't do anything else in this country, GO TO ZION. The topography there is unlike any other place in the world, and it is only gaining in popularity as a tourist destination. The canyons there are IMMENSE! So tall and massive and multi-colored that I wondered when exactly we had arrived at this different planet. There was so much mass of rock in each sandstone mountain, thousands of feet in the sky that I could almost feel a gravitational pull toward them, even if it wasn't physical. The sheer beauty cannot be put into words, and I don't believe that it is possible to over-hype this place. It will still grip you when you see it for yourself. Especially if you do the hike that we chose: Angels Landing. I really didn't know what we were in for until it was staring me in the face. It is 5800 feet in elevation, with 1500 feet in elevation change from the trailhead.
The canyon walls are so sheer that much of the trail had to be dynamited into the rock in the '30s. Amazing engineering. Once the first summit is reached, after many interesting rock features and endless switchbacks, hikers have a choice; you can stay there and enjoy the insane scenery from your dizzying height or press forward and take the knife-edge trail to the true summit, Angels Landing. Though the rangers always warn that there have been fatalities on that last portion, of course we had to go.
For the uninitiated, a knife-edge is a topographical term describing an elevated piece of land with obvious decline in elevation on either side. Aptly named. This was the thinnest knife-edge I have ever hiked. At times, it was literally 15 feet wide and then a 1400-foot SHEER drop down the sandstone cliffs to the canyon floor! The park has installed chains in the rock to serve as handholds for that last mile of climb to the peak. I had to try very hard to just focus on one foot hold, then the next. If I ever stopped to take a look over the edge, it was instant vertigo and I white-knuckled the support chain. I had a steady trickle of adrenaline in my blood until we finally reached the top. There we had a perfect 360 degree panoramic view of the most gorgeous wild west canyons I can imagine. We could see mountains even taller than us with flat tops that were brilliantly white colored with red streaks, blood red mountains right next to them with white streaks, and thousands of pine trees and cacti dotting the landscape. I would get dizzy when looking at the winding trail we had taken to get there.
The trip down for both of us was way easier than the trip up for some reason. I let everyone know that I'd be going ahead and would wait up at the first peak. Somehow I had lost my vertigo and felt extremely confident as I raced down the mountain. I held onto the chain as a formality, finding sure footing with every step. I passed countless people, trying not to be rude. When I got to the very slim knife-edge areas, I would grab the chain and lean over the edge to fully expose my brain to the limitless depth of this place.
When I finally reached the smaller peak, I climbed off of the trail to a secluded rock at the very top with hill on one side and nothing on the other. I made sure to sit down safely before this next exercise: I looked around me and let the my latent fear come to the surface. I entertained all of the "what if" thoughts that one might have in this place. I got the most intense dizzying feeling on that rock, almost nauseous. It was a paralyzing fear, to the point that I thought I could feel the layered rocks beneath me sliding uncontrollably like a stack of dimes toward the open cliff. I could actually feel the adrenaline in my neck, as if my glands would burst. Intellectually I knew this couldn't happen and I reminded myself of it as I stewed in this very real feeling. I could see my people coming down the trail and I started to try to turn my normal back on. It was difficult. What it came down to was just putting one foot in front of the other, hand over hand. By the time my feet reached trail again, I felt right as rain, and somehow refreshed.
Aunt Joanne had one more hike in store for us that day, this one to "The Narrows". To actually hike the whole Narrows trail, you have to hike in the river for quite a way until the canyon walls are only 40 feet apart, but hundreds of feet straight up.
We met one of the very people-friendly grounds-squirrels on the way up, which was funny because Erica had been trying so hard the entire trip to get a shot of one, and this guy actually walked right up to her and sat in her lap! He wanted food, which we would not give to him. He climbed all over me as well.
We reached finally reached the river after a short hike and opted to swim instead of finish the hike. There were some small grayish-turquoise waterfalls that looked especially appealing and that's where we went. It was so refreshingly cool after being in the 99 degree dry heat and intense desert sun all day. I slid down the waterfall time after time and floated the rapids for close to an hour before we had to call it a day and we turned back for the car.
Aunt Joanne took us to an AWESOME restaurant on the way back home called Oscar's. Erica got the mahi-mahi fish tacos and I got the WhoopAss Burger, a half pound pattie with jalapenos, onions, pickles, guacamole, anaheim chiles, and more jalapenos. And some hibiscus iced tea. HIT THE SPOT!
The next night we hit the Strip in Las Vegas. My cousin Danny took Erica and myself to some of the bigger sights. We ending up gambling at the Aria where we fully expected to lose our entire gambling budget of $20. But in fact, Erica ended up winning $3 and some change at the slots and I ended up winning $40 at roulette!
We then walked around City Center and then to the Bellagio where we caught one the their famous fountain shows. Danny and I watched from the top of a pine tree, 15 feet above the river of people flowing by below.
What a night.
Packing up to leave Las Vegas was difficult after the generosity shown to us by my family here. Certainly a relationship worth nurturing. We will never forget our time spent here and want to say thank you once again from the bottom of our hearts to Uncle George, Aunt Joanne, Danny, and Mili.
What a hell of a visit. How are we gonna top that?...
One word: EPIC!
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