Ted’s (Excellent?) Adventures

We started a nine-day hiking trip in Southern Utah at Zion National Park. It’s a spectacular park, with stunning geology. We spent three days here, and loved every minute of it.

To get here, we flew from Boston, through Chicago, to my least favorite city, Las Vegas, Nevada. We survived Las Vegas, largely because we spent just a few hours there before heading east to Zion. But we did go to a couple of the hotels, and drove down the strip, just so our kids could see it.

We’re here in early June, which is a great time to explore the parks of Southern Utah. A few weeks earlier might have been ideal, but the temperature, while hot (high 80’s to low 90’s), is great, there’s no humidity, and only an occasional rain shower. Many of the wild flowers are out in bloom, and it’s not terribly crowded.

One of the great things about Zion is that it offers many hiking options, from short and flat to downright scary. I was here years ago and did Angels Landing, which is a strenuous hike to the top of the mountain at the left. It’s not just a real challenge to make the climb up, but it has many places where there is a narrow (3-4 feet) hiking path, a chain on a vertical wall on one side, and a drop of 1000 feet or more on the other. Needless to say, if you don’t like hikes, this isn’t for you.

We didn’t take on Angels Landing, but had a great climb up to Hidden Canyon. On the left is a picture of our two children making the passage along one of Zion’s famous narrow passages with very steep drops. I don’t know how many people fall each year, but while you’re on the hike, the answer seems likes it has to be a very big number.

One of the great things about Zion is the geology of the park. The rock structures are made of sandstone, and show the most beautiful patterns. On some rock structures, you can see ripples that resemble what you’d see on a lake on a windy afternoon, only these are etched in rock that’s millions of years old.

We stayed at the Zion Mountain Lodge here, which was a so-so experience. It’s on the east side of the park, and we’d recommend staying either in the park at the Zion Lodge, or on the west side in a town called Springdale (small, but charming). Where we stayed was nice physically, but the service stunk. When we checked in, the owner told Elizabeth that the air conditioning in our unit was out. When she asked when they’d have it operational, he responded, “Who knows? If you don’t like it, just leave.” So much for customer service.

Today, we started in Natchez, Mississippi, a really interesting town with lots to look at. We wanted to go to New Orleans, but I had the brilliant idea to swing through Baton Rouge, to see the Louisiana state capital and the LSU campus. As you shall see, not my best move.

Natchez was spared damage in the Civil War, since it surrendered early. It was largely populated by immigrants from the North, who had no interest in fighting to the death on the side of the Confederacy. The town was the center of the nation’s cotton industry. At one point, 1/2 of the millionaires in the U.S. lived in Natchez!

We toured a couple of houses in Natchez. The first, the Dunleith house, has the worst tour guide we’ve ever encountered. After she spent twenty excruciatingly-boring minutes on the first room of the house, almost the entire tour group left. Dreadful! But it gave us lots to discuss with our kids about public speaking.

The second house was Longwood, which was fascinating. The house was designed as an octagon, and I have to say, I’m surprised the design hasn’t caught on. The house was only partially completed when the Mississippi economy collapsed at the end of the Civil War, and only the basement is finished. But it was an incredibly interesting tour, with (thankfully!) a great tour guide.

Our slight detour to Baton Rouge proved challenging. First, the drive down ended up going through a long construction zone (thank you, ARRA), and we got behind a VERY slow truck. We found the state capitol fine, and hung out there for an hour in sunny, 60 degree weather, which was fabulous. We then tried to go to the LSU campus. I — stupidly — put “Louisiana State University” into my Tom-Tom GPS system, and off we went . . . in a crazily indirect route through some very nerve-wracking neighborhoods. We ultimately ended up at a dumpy building marked “LSU Health Services”, with no sign of any other LSU buildings. At that point, we had our fill of Baton Rouge and headed to New Orleans, never to see any more of the LSU campus.

After a long day, with too much driving, we ended up in New Orleans. Tomorrow should be fun, and I for one am hoping we stay a couple of days.

No videos today, or particularly good Rosie stories. She ate lots of grass at the grounds of the capitol, and turned lots of heads in Natchez. And at one point, a bunch of Japanese tourists at the State Capitol “oohed” and “aahhed” over her.