Chapter 12

The next day we got an early start. In order to hit the road at 6 most of us were up by 5 to be able to get ready and then head to breakfast. Since there was a group of us that had already done Denny's for dinner the night before we decided to instead head to the Burger King that was just a little further down the road. I was a fan of the sausage, egg, and cheese croissanwiches that they have for breakfast, that, and the benefit of it being a relatively quick meal given the limited time that we had to work with.

Once everyone was back and the rooms were checked out we were on the road and headed for Zions. The park itself was primarily a large canyon, including several rivers, streams and a couple waterfalls. There was of course also the Narrows, but that wasn't one that we would be able to have the time to go do. There were two hikes we were planning on doing, one along one of the streams for about a mile total and the other up to Emerald Falls. The stream hike was before lunch and went fairly uneventful. Most of it was just looking at the things in the area and making stops to look at some of the plant life along the way.

After we got back from the hike it was time to do lunch around the main buildings for Zion. The park had a decent sized café type restaurant that most of the group ended up getting some form of burger or sandwich type. My choice for lunch was a French dip sandwich, fries, and a strawberry shake. We'd been to Zions enough that I knew how the food quality usually was fairly decent. The schedule we were given by my parents had given us about an hour for lunch and then we were to meet back up at the trail head for Emerald Falls.

Emerald Falls had some of the same types of plant life as along the river but was a further hike that covered roughly a 2 mile hike at a relatively gentle but consistent grade. The 2 mile mark would get you to the base of the falls, another mile and you'd go up a steeper slope to the top where the stream fed over the edge to create the waterfall. It wasn't a huge waterfall by any means, but it was pretty enough with the colorful plant life that flourished with the water and the mist that the falls brought. The base of the waterfall was just a series of rocks at the bottom worn smooth by the water.

The hike itself was fairly easy and being short drew a decent amount of people. It was one of the reasons my parents used it as a hike to take the kids on, even someone out of shape could make the hike. I'd been up it enough I didn't really have to worry about paying attention to what the signs on the side would indicate, I'd read each one on previous trips. It was also a disadvantage though. Knowing that it was 2 miles to the base of the waterfall my dad bet me that I couldn't make it to the waterfall in 15 minutes. The distance wouldn't be a problem, but the elevation change made things more difficult. I was still poor enough though that the $20 if I could make it was worth the effort, so while the group started walking my dad told me to start my stopwatch and head for the top.

The unfortunate part about the run was that I wasn't in the best of clothes for it. Sure, I was wearing running shoes but that was pretty common for me. The part that was problematic was the fact that as normal I was wearing denim shorts. While the shorts were not a complete hindrance, it still wasn't the most comfortable of things to wear for a run. Though I was soon to find out that the shorts were the least of my worries as far as comfort goes.

When I reached the half way point of my run I did a quick check on the time. The pace I was at would put me getting there with about a minute to spare. Taking a deep breath to help regulate my breathing I pushed it a little harder. Sure, I knew I was normally a very consistent runner when it came to pace, but it wouldn't hurt to give myself a little more of a push and finish with room to spare. I ended up making it to the last turn and slowed back down to a walk once the waterfall came into view.

The view I was greeted by at the waterfall was not the usual natural beauty you were accustomed to though. A 40-50 year old guy had wandered down on the rocks and stripped down to a pair of white briefs "tighty whities" as a lot of people call them. Unfortunately in this case it was all too fitting. They were both tight and white, or at least would have been white if the water hadn't made them transparent. He was standing under the water directly and with bar of soap in hand was giving himself a shower.

I could only shake my head in disbelief at the view. Who in their right mind comes to a waterfall that draws a good number of people and not only gets in the water, but does so with only his underwear and a bar of soap to boot? It was apparent this wasn't just a spur of the moment thing, but something he had planned from the beginning. If he hadn't planned it, he obviously would not have a bar of soap with him on the hike.

Getting my focus back though I hit the stop button on my stop watch to show where I'd ended up. It had been agreed before I'd started that the stopping point was the last corner that brought the waterfall into view. Now though I was just glad that I didn't have to stay at the lower portion but could go up to the top of the waterfall. The last thing I wanted to do was to 'enjoy' the view at the bottom. To get the view out of my head as soon as possible I picked my run up again being glad it wound around and up quickly out of sight from the waterfall.

My wait at the top for the rest wasn't too long though, about ten minutes later the group found it's way up to the top, my dad looking over at me before I stepped over to show him the time on my stopwatch. "Made it and with about a minute to spare by the watch. I was distracted briefly by the guy down at the bottom of the fall taking a shower."

My dad shook his head, pulling his wallet out and then handing me the bill which quickly found it's way down into my wallet. "Sounds like you made pretty good time for the distance and the elevation change, not bad. I'm guessing you didn't stay long at the bottom of the falls either before you came up here?"

"Definitely not, not with what was going on down there. I can possibly understand it if the guy was even remotely in shape, but he was old and out of shape. It's not a good combination when he's down to just his underwear ... and unfortunately I could tell the water looked rather cold." Much as I wish I could have said otherwise, it was true. The guy was old, fat, out of shape, and rather shriveled. I didn't know if it was normal for where ever he was from to disregard others like that but that wasn't something that I wanted to be able to keep as an image in my mind.

We spent a little time up at the top of the waterfall. A little upstream from it the water flowed slow enough to have developed enough to create a small pool and a few of the group decided to take that time to do a little wading in the water. The main thing was that by unspoken consensus the time at the top of the waterfall was to give the guy below time to hopefully finish what he had been doing and to be gone. None of wanted to be subject to a sight like that a second time, once was absolutely enough.

A half hour later the trek back down started, fairly uneventful, thankfully: the shower guy was already gone. We ended up making it back down to the main parking lot and the vans at 2:30. The schedule for the day would have us making it down to the Grand Canyon that night with enough time for us to be able to get the campsite set up before nightfall. We also had to factor in a quick stop at a grocery store before getting to the park; we had to pick things up for dinner as well as breakfast the next morning. The plan for dinner ended up becoming burgers and hot dogs over the grill, while breakfast would be simple with cereal and some assorted fruits.

From Zion it was another couple hour drive south to get to the Grand Canyon, at least to the part we were going to, the North Rim. As with any national park you had to be careful to follow the rules put out for any camp ground in the immediate area around the park. Camp fires or grills were regulated and had to be done in a controlled and safe environment. Any trash also had to be either taken off the park or disposed of properly in the camp ground's trash dumpster.