L&K Take America

From our stop in Williams, Arizona we headed to Cedar City, Utah which is about an hour from Zion National Park. This stop brought on several anxious and maybe a few angry moments for me.

As you may have gathered, many of the parks are not very dog friendly and Zion is grouped into that anti-Luna category so we decided to find a doggie daycare for her. This almost always brings on anxiety for me. Judge all you want, but her comfort and happiness is my responsibility. So, trying a new place is tough. I hate putting her into bad situations. On our drive up, Mike had found a doggie day care which had good reviews and was near the Park. When we pulled up, I am pretty sure I stopped breathing. It was so bizarre. There were random garden statues all over the place from all walks of life. Picture something like a cross between a Disney movie and True Detective, minus the murder stuff. The yard was a mess, the outside pens looked like the bad public gardens in Boston (where everything from shopping carts to old refrigerators are used to make the barriers), and the back sliding glass door (which is the first thing you see when you pull up) had broken blinds and things piled EVERYWHERE. Not what you want new customers to see. There were signs everywhere saying to be sure to have your dog on a leash because their animals (not just dogs) were roaming free. When we approached the door, it said to NOT enter, but to ring the doorbell. When we rang the doorbell, a woman came out but opened and closed the door behind her in such a way to not allow us to see nevermind go inside. SKETCH!!! I was ready to turn around and run, but I knew Mike was really looking forward to hiking in Zion, this was the ONLY place around and it had good reviews after all. Ugghh… So I signed away Luna’s life on several forms and I turned her over to the lady. I quickly reminded Mike that I would never forgive him if something bad happened to her. Not very nice of me.

Mike had been to Zion before, and leading up to our stop there he had been talking about the hikes we would do. I explained that I didn’t want to do any cliffhanger type hikes. Nothing scary. For those who know me well, you know that I have the coordination of a baby giraffe, or maybe a baby elephant because my legs aren’t long and gangly like a giraffe. Anyway, the point is, I’m not very coordinated and I tend to trip, fall, run into things a lot. The edge of a mountain covered in sand and steep drop offs doesn’t seem like the best place for me to start hiking until I’m a bit more seasoned. I probably said “no scary hikes, Mikey” no less than a dozen times. So when we arrived at park and I started looking at the map of the trail he said it VERY clearly said “Strenuous/Very difficult – Steep drop offs. You will not survive a fall. Not meant for children, unstable people” etc. etc. I turn to Mike and ask if he thought this was funny and if he wasn’t taking me serious. He started to smile and snicker. I was not finding this even remotely humorous. I will try a lot of things, but I know my personal limitations. His response? “Sometimes you need to get out of your comfort zone.” Now I became really angry. OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE??? What do you think this entire trip has been?? Completely out of my comfort zone, but I also am aware of things that I’m not prepared to push and it’s not anyone else’s place to trick you into pushing that when you put your trust in them. I was NOT happy. After a few choice words, and some cooling off, we decided on a different trail.

Zion was VERY different than the other parks I had been to. They didn’t let individual vehicles drive past the front gate. You had to take the bus/shuttle to all of the stops in the park and to all of the trails unless you were riding a bike. This made the whole thing seem very much like an amusement park, including an hour long wait in a line that was probably 3/4 of a mile long to get on the bus. It was crazy! Granted, it was Sunday of Labor Day Weekend and the weather was absolutely perfect, but still. Not anything like I had experienced or expected.

Utah is yet an another amazing state. The drive in from Arizona was breathtaking. Makes I-95 look pretttttyyyy boring.

We also got this fun message on the GPS:

Luckily, we just hit a few wet roads.

Zion National Park is really stunning. The different landscapes and earth structures are unbelievable.

Some day, I hope to become comfortable with hiking and heights enough to conquer even the scariest of climbs, but today was not that day. The trails we hiked, the Kayenta, The Emerald Pools, Riverside Walk (along The Narrows), Pa’rus Trail, and  The Sand Bench Loop, were great. Too crowded, but still really beautiful.

Lesson of the Day: Don’t try to push someone out of their comfort zone by ignoring their pleas for non-scary trails. It’s not fair and can ruin a good vibe for the day.  Only they can decide they are ready to push themselves.