It's Getting Hot in Here, So Take Off All Your Clothes

Cedar City, UT was our launching point to Zion National Park. Just a short trip from Bryce Canyon, Zion is radically different geologically. I'm sure a geologist could tell you the difference. All we have is purty pictures. Here, in the distance, is The Great White Throne. We didn't hike up it, so alas, we cannot say we Sat on The Great White Throne.


The word of the day: Hottness. It was hot. Damn hot. 106 degress to be precise. So our first stop was the Temple of Sinawava, a short shaded hike to a river into which we cast ourselves, alongside the teaming hoards of sweltering tourists.


To escape the heat, we went to the Zion Nature Center and watched a movie about the natural wonder that is Zion, blah, blah, blah, which Heinz doesn't recall because he was too busy enjoying the air conditioning.

We ventured back into the heat to see Weeping Rock: a huge, porous piece of sandstone through which water continually filters and drips. Along the way, we also saw the Hanging Gardens: leafy ferny things that grow from the rock and hang down like bushy green beards.


Our last stop for the day was to see the Emerald Pools. Algae gives these pools their distinctive color. We learned that 20 million years ago, the site of Zion was, in fact, the heart of the largest desert the world has ever known. Lots of the sand still exists on the hike to the Emerald Pools -- it's exactly the consistency of talcum powder and the color of Silly Putty. We accumulated a coating of the stuff.


We got back to the car and pulled some Cokes out of our cooler. After a day in 106 degree heat, Heinz and Furball decided that ice-cold Cokes are, in fact, the Best Thing Evar. Everything in the car that wasn't packed in ice, however, had become liquified, including Furball's eye-liner and our deodorants (oh, no!).

We left Zion and drove to Las Vegas. Believe it or not, we stayed on the Strip in The Mirage. The clean bathroom was almost as welcome as the Cokes.