We were up early tearing down the tents and the guys made pancakes for breaky. I stopped in tropic for gas and coffee as usual while the guys booked it for Zion to meet a friend at 10. I took my time, probably a little too much, before continuing on after them.
I reached the park gates at 9h57. Then there's a 12 mile drive to the visitors centre, beautiful drive! But I was focused on the time. Worried I'd be holding them up. I messaged Albraa as I arrived the panned meeting place only to find out they couldn't get parking, so they'd gone into Springdale (nearest town) to park and shuttle from there. I got priority motorcycle parking! No shuttle for me. I snacked, checked out the gift shops and refilled my water while I waited.
With the guys and their friend we grabbed a shuttle to the Grotto to begin out chosen hike up to Angel's landing. All the while wary of the dark cloud that had been following us since Bryce.
The hike is 5 miles (8 km) and 1488ft (454m) elevation gain. The last third of the trail is along a ridge with full drops on either side and chains so one has something to hold onto. Twas challenging! And we were being chased by that cloud, but it was still sunny, though quite windy, when we finally made it to the top. Going down was more fun as I treated the chains like a repelling line,; holding on and bouncing my way down.
As we made our way down, I joked that someone in our group has a horseshoe up their bum given the luck we'd had with the weather (sunny for rafting despite snow the previous day, no rain on us in Bryce). We did a second hike up to Emerald lakes, before heading back to our respective vehicles and going in search of dinner.
We stopped at a very random roadside stop with a petting zoo and some sort of exhibit. There was a gift shop that reminded me of the scene from Zombieland where they destroy one. Our meals were massive and the bread addictive! I had ribs. Much needed protein after that hike!
The trick with Utah is that this restaurant only served food, no alcohol. The Tamales had complained about this, but I hadn't encountered it. The guys wanted to grab a final beer with their buddy, so off to find a bar we went. Thanks Google for directing us towards whatever the palace we eneded up at could be. It was an Eagles club; kinda the place you night expect to be a motorcycle gang's clubhouse. They welcomed us in, signed us each up with a membership so we could stay and buy beer. They had pool and, much to Henriks excitement, shuffleboard! One of the older fellows had to explain him the rules.
Our hotel down the road in Saint George was... Well Albraa put a hole in the wall with the door. Enough said.
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