Vacation-

we just returned from a week of vacation. Some plans changed in the end- but for the most part is was all good.

Above is myself in the bucket of a digger that was left around a bit of torn up earth on Chamberlain Ranch (we speculate they're subdividing and selling off some land for vacation homes)- just north of Zion National Park- you walk through a bit of the ranch to access the Virgin River just above where it enters the park and slots up into The Narrows. Which we through-hiked in just ender 8 hours (the norm being doing it in two days with 10-12 hours of hiking total. It's only 16 miles- but those are river miles, which have you rock hopping and sliding around crossing back and forth across the river from sand bar to sand bar in search of easier hiking.

There was some great red and yellow columbine in The Narrows. They grow out of the sheer walls, forming hanging gardens where various springs and seeps exit the canyon walls.
Unfortunately we didn't see any of the purple and white Rocky Mountain Columbine- which apparently haunt Boundary Canyon (around Zion)- the friends we visited, Ariel and Phillip, had pictures of some they saw when they did said canyon several weeks ago.

I'm pretty certain columbine are my favorite flower- you can't tell- but the ones in the picture are two and a half to three inches long from front to back with their long tails. They're intricate without being delicate- but they only grow in very wet places, the sides of stream beds, etc. so you don't often fine the density and profusion of them you do in The Narrows.

I'm also quite upset with Xanterra Parks and Resorts (the only concessionaires in many of the National Parks... I'm always upset with them about something- but this time even D thinks it's warranted) when we were at The North Rim Lodge- we quite clearly heard the hostess of their fine dining restaurant tell two twenty-something ladies that they had to have reservations (in the snottiest, drawn-out tone, I couldn't believe my ears). Then a thirty-something couple walked up not two minutes later and she told them she could seat them if they could dine immediately... (the ladies had not asked for a later time, they had simply inquired if they could be accommodated at all that evening)

excuse me???

I work in restaurants- I know how reservations work- and that sometimes someone gets up before you think they will, you can move a few things around, and seat someone on the spur of the moment that you wouldn't have thought you could... but this hostess didn't look around- didn't talk to any other staff between talking to these two pairs... if a table had opened up- she wouldn't have known- she was making a judgment based totally on what she thought they looked like.


Why must Xanterra make our parks cheap and trashy??? Why can't they step up their service and services to match the fact that they're located in some of the most beautiful, treasured, and historic places our country has???

Bah.