May 14 - Zion and Dixie National Forest

Thurs, May 14– 4 am, I woke up shivering. I was only sleeping with a light blanket, and the chill was really setting in. I grabbed my sleeping bag and passed out again.

645, Tyne woke me up. "Let's go," she said, "We are supposed to get an early start today."

It was barely after 7am, and we were on the road to Zion. I stopped and bought a cup of coffee, but it didn't wake me up too much. Just before Zion, we pulled into the Library, found a quick geocache, and then emptied the car and repacked. We kept thinking of things we had lost, and promised to be more careful. Tyne went into the library to use the internet, while I stayed outside with Dazey and picked up Wi-Fi in the shade. We got a lot done, most of the items checked off our 15 point check list. It was time to drive into Zion.

Passing through the gates, the park was very full. The lots were full, the campgrounds full, and I wasn't happy about the crowd. We started making our way up into the valley. We passed through a mile long tunnel through the rock, then another and winded our way up the canyon. Miles later, we went through an entrance to the park. Confused, we looked at the map and realized we had driven out of the park.

Turns out that in the summer, the only way you can get into Zion Valley is on a shuttle bus. We were supposed to leave our car in a lot and get driven through the park. This was miles back now, and I was pissed and tired. I turned onto a side street and told Tyne I had to lay down because I was stressed and couldn't drive anymore. I lay in the back and Tyne took the wheel for the first time.

I closed my eyes but didn't fall asleep. I just breathed and calmed down while Tyne drove. She didn't turn back to go into the park again, which I was happy for. She headed for Dixie National Forest to our North East.

Twenty minutes of Tyne driving, I sat up and looked around. We had driven way up into the hills and were in some very pretty birch and pine forests. Every hundred yards was another dirt road winding into the forest, revealing gems of camping spots. Tyne turned onto one, and we drove down road after road looking for a good spot.

Nothing too great came up, so we parked and decided to take a walk and decide what we wanted to do. We marked the van with the GPS, and aimlessly headed up the hill. After 20 minutes of walking, we turned to go back, but lost our way. We circled back around and got completely disoriented. Tyne finally found 6 cut stumps and christened them "landmark stumps." She knew the way from here and were soon back at the van.

We had seen what was around the van, and it was beautiful but we wanted something more. Running water or a cliff face or something fun. We drove another few miles and turned down another backroad towards an exposed rock cliff face. Driving by a smaller road, it looked good and we drove in. There were three fire pits back here and enough room to throw a kegger. We stopped for the night here.

The first thing we did was some yoga and crunches. We centered ourselves, relaxed and made ourselves feel great. Then we collected some firewood and set up the big tent, with all the blankets for extra padding and warmth. We then cooked an amazing dinner as the day ended; Broccoli Cheese rice mixed with fried potatoes and mushrooms, a can of cream of chicken soup and a can of tuna all mixed together.

I had been feeling pretty crappy during the days leading up to this night. Tyne and I had a good talk, drank some whiskey and I began to feel better. Writing this three days later, I still feel good and hopefully it stays this way.

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