America the Beautiful: Zion & Bryce

  Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah, United States
Thursday, April 30, 2009

zion

zion

homeschooling

our driver

zion

As I write this, I am sitting enjoying my afternoon coffee in a huge RV pulled up to a trail we just hiked in Bryce Canyon. Starbucks in an RV... can't get any better than that!

We are 5 days into our RV tour through the Dessert Southwest and just landed yesterday in Bryce National Park. We were not in a rush to leave Zion where we camped for 3 days right in the park... see photo of our RV sitting in the shadow of Watchman peak. A little spontaneous twist to our leg in Zion was that we picked up another traveler who, as you may see from this photo is not exactly small (Luke said that he counts as 2 people) or quiet LOL.

zion

Eric is a friend of Ross'/ours from business school who we stayed with in Las Vegas and spur of the moment we decided to invite him along to Zion. He is a great guy and provided both non-stop entertainment ("refreshingly inappropriate") and deep talks too... he is in one of those open, humble searching places in life. Now that it is just the 5 of us, who knows, we might be bored with each other. RV life is suiting us! It is cozy being in one little space together & just hanging out. Each of us has one little cubby for our clothes. We are enjoying cooking & eating in after eating out so much b4 this. Ross in particular seems to be in his element in the RV making pancakes, getting us rigged up, and driving this big beast. We did not exactly get a highend RV... Lexi met a little girl yesterday and came back and said "Why can't we get a bigger RV?" No one in these parks is trying to keep up with the Joneses!

zion

zion

zion

zion

me with my other husband

Highlights from Zion include: long Yahtzee games with Deardorff (as the kids called Eric), two amazing hikes (Erik & Luke were impressive outdoorsmen & Lexi held her own), morning runs along the Virgin River, Emily not minding ;) a 1:2 female: male ratio (unexpectantly she stumbles in from a early morning run to see two men in their underwear-I can't believe I am writing this...maybe Ross will edit this out...), a delicious salmon dinner cooked over the fire, roasting s'mores, the kids working together to earn their first Junior Ranger Badges, and lastly just unhooking and driving our little home to our next destination. The drive between Zion and Bryce was spectacular and was one of those precious family moments. Our campground here in Bryce is not inside the park, so we are not as surrounded by its beauty as we were in Zion.

Zion touched a place within me. I feel like I still have it's beauty & spirit inside me.
"Beauty calls us beyond ourselves and it encourages
us to engage the dream that dwells within the soul."

Something about this quote captures my "inner journey." Not sure if Ross would say it exactly this way (he is not as off in the clouds as I am, the business guy that he is) but I can see this in him too. Being miles away from the demands and routines of his highly productive life is such a gift, it is allowing him to be a mere human. Today is his birthday... so allow to be a little sappy for a moment... today I am feeling a little spark of renewed love & am cherishing both his inner and outer beauty (he matches with the rusty brown hues here in Bryce). I am happy to see him enjoying this time so much. He has a childlike quality that seems to be awakened by the RV and being out in nature. You should see him paling around with our RV neighbors while hooking up the sewage and electrical connections? Maybe this is his true self?

zion

zion

Writing now while the RV is still asleep...
Ross was more drawn and moved by Bryce than Zion. It does have a mystical, more fragile, whimsical feel than Zion. We will always remember Ross' 44th birthday in Bryce. We had a great hike together all 5 of us, then Luke & Ross got a nice one-on-one hike together, we swam in a pool, got some needed showers, and had a nice all- you-can-eat-birthday dinner, which of course we all like.

bryce

bryce

bryce

birthday boy

bryce

Can you see the ground in dirt and ketchup stains all over the 3 pilgrims?
The kids had their first showers after 5 days and we did our first laundry in the RV park.

Homeschooling continues to have its familiar struggles, but the kids are getting into earning Junior Ranger Badges (you should see them taking their oaths to be "explorers" and "caretakers") at the parks so this has provided a little extra motivation. Ross is doing an economics project with the kids while we are in the RV keeping track of all of our expenses. It is adorable to watch. Relative to the DR where the Native Americans were basically wiped out, there is so much more Native American culture still evident here. The parks do an amazing job helping people see & feel the connection between the natural environment and the various people groups who migrated and settled here over the course of thousands of years. We are reading books about Indian Rock Art & we are seeing these symbols all over the place. I am particularly drawn to this one symbol-a round spiral turning into a square spiral-which was drawn when a tribe was migrating from one location to another. The circular spiral representing leaving one place, and the square representing settling in a new place. Learning about all the various people groups who were drawn to these sacred places gave us all (in varying degrees) a sense of oneness with both the natural environment and the eternal human spirit. We are no longer nomadic people, but whether we arrive by foot, by horse drawn carriage ... or by RV..."we are all fellow travelers, explorers, and adventurers in this world." We are all just passing through.

The RV is just waking up to a new day. The dad is whipping up some pancakes, mom is blogging & downloading photos, the kids are milling around, there is a cozy, happy zibe in the air. .. oh, I hear a fight brewing. Today we are going on a horseback ride in Red Canyon Park.

changing the black water

cowgirl

cowboy erik

cowboy luke

happy trails from all of us