Justin got up at 6; Crystal stayed in bed. He saw that Heidi's significant other, Tom, had texted us the news that Mango Mussolini had been diagnosed as positive for the Coronavirus. Justin responded "it is what it is..." Perhaps that would earn us some bad karma, as we were going all over the Southwest on this trip, potentially exposing ourselves to the virus, but at least we were wearing masks, trying to avoid being within six feet of people, and generally caring and being aware that a deadly virus was around. Anyway, fuck that guy and anyone who stands with him (TM: Shea Serrano).

So, in short, the the morning was off to a good start. Justin took a short drive into the park. It was freezing outside, literally. But since there had been no precipitation, there was no risk of black ice. Justin was the third car at Sunrise Point, which he managed to find today. There was a full moon out, so Justin could at least see a little bit. He had his cameras, plus Crystal's GoPro, plus his tripod. Last night he'd gone over with Crystal how to do a time-lapse movie, but today the proof would be in the pudding. Last night he also figured out where he wanted to stand to take the time-lapse. He'd looked at his photos and saw a couple that had a pretty good view back towards the west, which should light up as the sun came up. He looked at the timestamps and figured it was 5-7 minutes down the path, and he even noted a picture with a stilt-root tree that was right afterwards, meaning if he saw that tree he just needed to walk up the hill a bit.

But even with a full moon illuminating things, he could not find what he was looking for, even the stilt-root tree. So he just kept going until he found a good spot that had a mixture of colors, textures, hoodoos, rolling hills, and the correct orientation. Eventually he found a spot near the bottom of Queen's Garden, aimed back uphill, right where we took a right turn the day before. It was just off the trail, on a little spur between Queen's Garden and one of the horse trails, and was at the base of a white hammer-shaped hoodoo. [He originally thought it might be Thor's Hammer, but no, that's incorrect.]

The GoPro didn't have an attachment (with us, at least) to fasten to the tripod, so Justin set up the tripod such that the GoPro could just rest on top of the tripod. [You can see the tripod in this photo and this photo.] Once set up, the sun still wasn't quite up, so Justin started the time-lapse and then just proceeded to explore a bit, as no one else was around and he wasn't too worried about someone stealing the GoPro or tripod. Everyone was up at the rim, looking at the sun, but immediately above all the colored walls that were about to be painted with sun.

When the sun did come up, it came up through some haze or light clouds, so it was more of a red than a bright yellow or orange, which meant the lighting on the rocks was not as harsh. Around this time, some people did start walking down Queen's Garden, and two different couples stopped around Justin was standing. He chatted with one of the couples, which was from St. George. He commiserated with them about Zion and Bryce and what a gorgeous morning it was. He would have chatted longer, but he needed to get back up the hill so that he could be back by 9. He was, not surprisingly, the only one walking up the path. He helped a couple people take some group photos, hoping that might earn him some good karma. He was back in the car by 8:30, and back at the hotel by 8:40. On the drive back, there were some deer eating right beside the road leaving Sunrise Point.

While Justin had been out and about, Crystal had packed almost everything and had also gone to the grocery store again, this time to get Justin some soda and herself some coffee. When Justin got back in the room he thanked her profusely, and then said "I really hope I didn't screw up that time-lapse!" Crystal checked on her GoPro app, and sure enough, it turned out. We logged on to our respective computers at 8:55, and got everything set up to get the Zion shuttle tickets. Around 8:59 we kept refreshing the page until time slots showed up. At 9:00, we both clicked on the earliest available times as soon as they showed up, and while Crystal's hung (giving a message saying "a lot of people are trying to book that same time"), Justin was able to get through and purchase two tickets for tomorrow. Best. Morning. Ever.

We were out of the room about 10 minutes later, on the way towards Zion. We got gas across the street at the Sinclair gas station, which had a dinosaur logo on its signs, which Crystal was a fan of. We drove slowly through Red Canyon, and it didn't seem as interesting as the day before, perhaps because Bryce was bigger and better in terms of scenery. Just past there, the road construction was right at the intersection of Highway 12 and Highway 89. We had to wait there for about 10-15 minutes, and hoped that would be our only stop due to construction. We tried to do Duolingo whilst sitting there, and Crystal succeeded, but Justin couldn't get his to work. Also while waiting to go, we compared drive times to get to Zion. The day before, Crystal's phone seemed to think it would take a lot longer. The same was happening today. Justin peered at her phone, and realized his route wasn't even showing up on her phone, even as option 2 or 3. A lightbulb went off and he asked her "do you have the setting to avoid toll roads turned on or off?" That was indeed the issue, as the planned route we had came in the east entrance of the park.

Once we got going, and knew we were in fact going the most direct (and fastest) way, we slowly but surely started passing all the cars and trucks in front of us. We eventually got to a second construction stop. At this point, we were the fourth vehicle in line, behind a semi and two cars. Justin tried Duolingo again, and it worked this time. After we got going again, we were able to pass everyone before getting into the town of Mt Carmel. In Mt Carmel, we turned west off of the 89 onto Highway 9, also known at the Mt Carmel Scenic Highway. We were listening to Lithium, and there was a show with one of the brothers from Oasis (not sure which one) talking about their iconic album, which is turning 25 this year. We're not the biggest Oasis fans, but it was interesting to hear him talk about the album and what was going on, such as an anecdote about how they were partying and missed the photo shoot for the album cover, so just sent some friends to be on the cover instead.

We went past an area with a bunch of bison, on our left. It wasn't immediately clear if these were wild bison or if they were in an enclosed area; Crystal seemed to think they were fenced on all sides, and she could see a lot better than Justin since she wasn't driving. Either way, it was cool to see some more bison. We got into the park around 11am, and there was a little bit of a backup at the park entrance. Once inside, it was fairly busy, and because of this, plus the fact we had procured tickets into Zion Canyon for tomorrow, Justin made an executive decision to do the short Canyon Overlook hike today, such that we wouldn't need to come back to this part of the park tomorrow. It meant we'd be a little tight on time for the 1pm shuttle, but he figured we'd be okay.

There were cars everywhere along the highway, so we parked a couple hundred feet from the trailhead, and just walked along the highway. This wasn't a problem, however, because everyone on the highway was stopped, backed up from the Mt Carmel tunnel through one of the mountains. The overlook trail was pretty busy, and there were some overly chatty people right behind us for most of the hike, which was only 15-20 minutes. The view at the end of the hike was a very nice one, and the scale of the mountains peaks was immense, really incredible. It may have been only a fraction of the Grand Canyon, but it seemed way bigger, probably because 1) we were looking up instead of down, and 2) the canyon was way narrower. We didn't wait long, going right back to the car. It was noticeably hotter than in Bryce and the North Rim, and not coincidentally we were at a lower elevation.

Back in our car, there was already a line back to our car, so we hoped that meant it would be our turn pretty soon. We weren't sure why there was a wait, unless the tunnel was one direction only. When we finally got in there, it was clear that traffic could go both ways, so we were miffed. The only thing we could surmise is that the park employees purposefully stopped the traffic to prevent cars from being stopped in the tunnel itself, such that people wouldn't be breathing exhaust if and when they stopped in the tunnel. But that was only a guess. On the west side of the tunnel, we were heading down a ton of switchbacks (visible in this picture) behind a Lexus from Tustin, and they drove exactly how you'd expect a Lexus from Tustin to drive. The views were awe-inspiring, but we were currently focused on getting into town.

We got into Springdale around 12:30, and went straight to the parking lot of our shuttle company, Zion Guru, which is an outfitter that has shuttles that are allowed into the park. We asked if there was anywhere close where we could get food before 1, and the guy said the Sol Food grocery store would possibly work. So we booked it over there, about a 5 minute walk. We kept our eyes out for restaurants, and there was a barbecue restaurant with multiple signs for berry pie and ice cream, so we figured the third time might be the charm if we went there for dinner. At the grocery store, there was one employee working, and he wasn't working very fast, but he wasn't dilly-dallying either, so we just sat there and sweated it out while he made the sandwiches we ordered. We eventually got our stuff and rushed back to Zion Guru, getting there at 12:55, at which point we could exhale.

It was not a long drive into the park, and we got off at the first stop that this shuttle had, The Grotto. Everyone else on our shuttle was going on the hike at the north end of the canyon, The Narrows, but we didn't have much interest in hiking in knee-deep water. We were hiking the West Rim trail, which is the trail that leads up to Angel's Landing, a famous hike along a narrow ridge, requiring people hold on to steel ropes. That hike has been closed for months, because of Covid concerns of everyone sharing the same steel rope and being in such close proximity (by definition). We weren't going to do that, but we did want to see the view from Scout's Lookout, right nearby. The trailhead had an ambulance, which is always an encouraging sign.

We ate our lunch slowly, as we (now) had all the time in the world. Our return shuttle wasn't until 7:40, and so we had a lot of buffer time. One of the reasons for this was because when we booked this shuttle, we weren't sure if we'd be able to get back in the canyon the next day, so we gave ourselves time to explore the canyon floor after the hike. After finishing our lunch, we put on some sunblock, as it was the middle of the day and we figured we'd be in the sun at least part of the way. We started up the mountainside, and almost immediately we realized we were going to be in more sun than we thought. We were hiking up the side of an east-facing mountain, so we figured in the afternoon the mountain itself would shade our way. That might haven been true in an hour or two, but it was most definitely not true now.

We channeled our inner Joseph (our guide on Kilimanjaro) and went "pole pole" up the mountain. The views were amazing, with towering granite everywhere. We used this as a constant excuse to stop and "take in the scenery" when in fact we were exhausted. Justin remembered that this was his third hike of the day, and also Crystal's second, so he took some solace in that. We kept taking water breaks as well, which had the added benefit of making the backpack lighter. After a mile or so, there was a sign stating that this was a sensitive owl habitat, and that people should be quiet to avoid disturbing the owls. We figured this was brilliant, and that every busy hike should put up signs like this - owls or not - just to get people to be quiet when hiking. We liked this part of the hike, as it was relatively flat and it was in the shade.

On the walk, we were playing tortoise and the hare with the world's oldest instagram model. This woman, who was wearing too-short shorts (for anyone), kept posing in these ridiculous positions as she went up the mountain. They kept passing us, and then when they got tired, we walked slowly past them, just trudging along. It was a bit like the hike we had last year to the world's longest suspension bridge in Switzerland, where we were pretty hungover, and kept playing leapfrog with about a dozen other people until finally our hangover wore off and we left everyone in the dust. Today we weren't hung over, but eventually we did leave this couple behind, at Walter's wiggles. We don't know who Walter is, but we hated him today. His wiggles are an engineering marvel that goes straight up the side of the mountain in a couple dozen switchbacks. Pretty much everyone was in rough shape going up these, so we didn't feel so bad about our "enjoy the scenery" stops.

At the top, we were very close to Scout's Lookout and a welcome break. There were a bunch of people chilling in the shade, taking in the view of the canyon below and the granite walls across the canyon from us. People were also enjoying the rock squirrels that abounded. We'd seen these in a couple places on the trip, but there were a ton here, and they had zero concern about people's privacy or personal space. They were going into open backpacks, going up people's shorts, down women's shirts, doing whatever they could to find some food. To our surprise, Angel's Landing was open. One of the people near us mentioned that it had opened the day before, October 1. She said that it was now the low season, and so they re-opened it. We debated, very briefly, taking advantage of this change in circumstance to go on the hike, since we were 80% of the way already. Then we remembered we hated being so close to people on hikes, hated having to hold onto something on hikes, and weren't fans of being 1500-2000 feet up a vertical wall with no guardrail. We could easily see the trail from our vantage point, and weren't fans.

So instead we walked a bit further up the west rim trail. The west rim trail goes another 10-11 miles past Scout's Landing, eventually getting to the very top of the canyon and going into the northwest part of the park, which you can drive to from another direction. Justin had read that almost no one hikes past Scout's Lookout, but that there are a bunch of amazing views further north, including some where you can see the north end of the canyon. We hiked another 3/4 of a mile or so when Justin veered off the trail to the right. There wasn't a trail per se, but there was a path that had clearly been walked on repeatedly. Justin kept walking further out onto this ridge, and at some point Crystal said she'd gone far enough, but Justin could keep going - but to be safe. He was able to find a view (Crystal memorialized it here) where he could see the north end of the canyon, and a view of the river there, so he took a bunch of pictures and panoramas. And he stayed safe, or at the very least, he made it back safely.

Since Justin saw what he wanted to see, there was no need for us to keep walking uphill, so we started leisurely walking back downhill. Since we were going downhill, and there was more shade, we enjoyed the hike down a lot more. Some of the views, particularly from right around the sign with the note to be quiet for the owls, were straight out of the Lord of the Rings or something. If Yosemite looks anything like Zion, we're going to regret having not gone there together yet. We were back down at the Grotto a little before 5:30, and tried to catch an earlier shuttle. Other people were there trying the same thing, so we tried our luck. The driver didn't bat an eyelash, and let us on. 8 people got on at the Grotto, and at the other stop - the Temple of Sinawava - there were at least 16 people trying to get on. It was immediately obvious not everyone could get on. We were worried they'd kick us off the van, but part of the 16 was a big family that wanted to travel all together. As soon as we backed out of the spot, we breathed a sigh of relief.

A couple was getting married right nearby, and we wondered how they managed to get the whole wedding party to the end of the canyon, but good for them. We also saw some wild turkeys, and some deer in the road, on the drive back. The views out of the window were incredible, and we wondered how many of the pictures taken through the glass turned out. We arrived back in Springdale around 6, and the car, unsurprisingly, was really hot. We hoped nothing, including our laptops, melted. At our hotel, Flanigan's, we got checked in, and our room had a pretty great view, but we didn't stay there long to enjoy it. Instead, we were on a mission, a mission for pie and ice cream. We made a beeline for Porter's Smokehouse and Grill, which we'd taken note of earlier. On the walk, we did occasionally note the great views of the mountains above town, and we definitely took note of the juvenile male deer right in front of us on the sidewalk.

At the restaurant, we each got Cadillac margaritas with "Alisha's special sweet and sour", and our waitress was named Alisha, so we thought better of asking for less sweet and sour, even though we generally despise sweet and sour in margaritas. They were quite good margaritas, but they were still too sweet. Each of us ordered the sampler platter, with a couple pork ribs, pulled pork, brisket, and chicken wings. Incredibly, they brought out drummettes for Justin and flats for Crystal, as if they knew. We were very happy we were able to get the earlier shuttle back into town. We took note, and at 7:40 we were done with dinner and on our second margarita. Justin braved it and ordered his with less sweet and sour and a bit of OJ (they didn't have grapefruit). Alisha did not seem offended. We realized we had (yet another) pretty full day, with multiple hikes in multiple national parks. Back at the hotel, we had the front desk print out our shuttle tickets for tomorrow, then in the room Justin watched the NBA finals and Crystal did more Hungarian lessons. We got to sleep fairly early since we had an early morning the next day.