Hiking the Hoodoos

Quinn and I packed up our campsite and said goodbye to Zion by doing the iconic valley view lookout.

From there we headed to the Gerstner's favorite coffee shop. In the tiny hamlet between Zion and Bryce canyon lies the best chocolate croissant you will ever have. We went here over 2 years ago and their plastic cups are still in our cupboard because throwing it in the trash would be too disrespectful to a shop so excellent at its craft. Also, they happened to sell a my traveling collectable; a geographically branded shot glass.

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After feeling refiled and closer than ever to chocolate utopia, we headed to Bryce Canyon. If you have never been to Bryce Canyon before, it can be best summed up by Quinn's quote "Wow... what a great place to put a Walmart." We walked through the Hoodoos of Wall Street and down through the valley floor on a 3.3 mile hike.

Then Quinn and I shared our goodbye's as he headed to the Grand Canyon and my next destination was north to Salt Lake City. I couldn't be more thankful that he was able to join me to see some of Utah's greatest views. As I watched the back of his Subaru drive away, I was flooded with love and gratitude and the only thing I could think was "his vehicle registration is expired"

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With some time to kill before needing to make the 4 hour drive to Salt Lake City, I decided to do some trip planning in the car and hunt for a mountain bike trail. I'm not hauling around a giant bike on the back of my van just to do 1 mile strolls around campsites, I needed some action and danger as badly as I needed proper medical insurance.

I was lucky enough to find a highly rated mountain bike trail that rode right through large sandstone Hoodoos. It looked beautiful on the website, and it also looked too long and difficult. It wasn't a loop, and being a 8 mile trail, I couldn't bike the trail and then bike all the way back to my car. It also was a bit above my skill and fitness grade. But I figured I would go as far as I can one way onto the trail, hope to get lucky and hit a section with Hoodoos, and turn around.

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Three miles in, exhausted, dirty from be flung from my bike, and with no red rocks in sight I lost hope. Luckily a group of 4 young men caught up with me on their bikes. I asked them how much further the famous views were, and they told me no more than 200 yards. That was great news, but the even better news was that they offered to shuttle me and my bike from the ending trailhead back to my van. They encouraged me not to half ass the route and do the whole thing.

So I spent the last 5 miles slowing down a group of 3 very strong bikers as I walked my Cannondale down rocky switchbacks and stopped far to often to take photos of the landscape. But they were the nicest group of guys, and we spent all the breaks and truck ride back joking and asking questions. Humans are just great people sometimes.

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I arrived back at my van physically spent, and settled in for a 4 hour drive to a Love's parking lot.

TLDR: When presented with opportunities, try to say "yes" as often as possible.