Hiking at Paiute National Park

Today we drove to Zion National Park, a drive of about 70 miles from our camp site.  We didn't know what to expect from a National Park named for a wacky Mormon idea about a utopian place for the religious right where they live in a socialist society.

What I don't understand is that while Mt. McKinley has been renamed in honor of the original Native American name for the area (Denali),  a National Park still retains names from a weird sect originated by a man who copied other people's ideas about Native Americans being the lost tribes of Israel, who had multiple wives, and whose disciple (Brigham Young) lied when he said that Joseph Smith wanted him to be the successor to him when evidence clearly indicates that he appointed his son to follow him as Prophet.  And while we are at it, a "religion" that only recently (1978) changed to allow other nationalities (namely Blacks) to go to the highest levels of heaven:

 "You see some classes of the human family that are BLACK, UNCOUTH, UNCOMELY, DISAGREEABLE and LOW in their habits, WILD, and seemingly DEPRIVED OF NEARLY ALL THE BLESSINGS OF THE INTELLIGENCE that is generally bestowed upon mankind. The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam. Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been KILLED, and THAT WOULD HAVE PUT A TERMINATION TO THAT LINE OF HUMAN BEINGS. This was not to be, and the Lord put A MARK upon him, which is THE FLAT NOSE AND BLACK SKIN. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race -- that they should be the "servants of servants;" and they will be, until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree." ----Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p. 290, 1859). 

OK.  Enough about the religion of the empty-head running for President.  Back to the park itself which should be renamed.

Hey.  And I'm gonna do it.  A much better and more fitting name.

I am renaming this place Paiute National Park, in honor of the people Brigham Young took the land from and in whose name he orchestrated a massacre of innocent settlers. 

Our trip to Paiute National Park: 

We woke up this morning to COLD!!!!  This was the temperature an hour later, as we were leaving to drive to Paiute National Park:

 

 I am glad to see so many people enjoying our national parks.  I read once where people spend an average of something like 18 minutes at Grand Canyon.  They park, good to an overlook, take a few photos, and leave.  But seeing Paiute National Park in 3 hours?   

Vicky said it reminded her of those old TV shows where the winning prize was to see how many groceries you could put into your cart in 5 minutes.

The park is organized in a terrific fashion.   It was loaded with people.  All of the parking lots at the Visitor Center were full by 10:00 a.m., with signs directing people to places outside the park where they could catch shuttles.

After one gets to the main Visitor Center, you take shuttles into the heart of the park.  These shuttles are fairly new, and they are a wonderful idea.  It would be next to impossible to visit this park without them, and without them the effect of cars and exhaust would eventually destroy the beauty of it.



We decided on a hike to Scout Lookout.  We read that it was a two mile hike with 1000+ foot elevation gain.  This basically means walking up the entire time.  From Scout Lookout, one can, if you desire, pull yourself up by the use of chains up to Angels Landing, but this clearly is not indicated for someone who has had, in the past four years, three foot surgeries and two shoulder surgeries and who is (1) a chicken and (2) not a Mormon who is ticking off god by saying that the park's name should be changed.  So we stayed with the two mile hike.

The hike was different from any we've taken, with the possible exception of the Navaho Loop trail at Bryce Canyon National Park.  This one was completely paved.  Two miles, with 1070 foot elevation gain, a hike almost comparable to Mt. Si in Snoqualmie Pass.  But to create the trail required incredible ingenuity, as the trail makes dozens of switchbacks on a mountain that seemingly goes straight up.  The paved trail allows for a lot of people to make the ascent who ordinarily wouldn't be able to, which is a good thing.  And without the paving and the support for the switchbacks, the trail couldn't exist. 

There are two major sets of switchbacks.  Here is a photo of one of them.  I believe this trail was one of the first that was created in the park, many years ago.  It is an incredible feat.  You literally are walking up the side of a stone mountain. 

Isn't this beautiful?  It's a photo of the dry stream bed that we saw during our ascent.

Here we are at the summit, with a photo of Angel's Peak, and people, like Vicky's brother Doug who we'd better not ever hear does anything like this again or we'll beat him up, pulling themselves up the last few feet on chains.  Since 2004 six people have died falling from this rock.  Doug--are you reading this?  NO MORE!  If you promise not to do this any longer, I'll stay away from logs.  Deal?

As a special bonus treat, we saw a California Condor flying above us.  How beautiful.  Only a few left in existence.

Here is a photo of Vicky on the way down, showing the rock we climbed today.

On our drive out of Paiute National Park we found another hike, one that promises more isolated country and the kind of hiking experience we prefer.  We will go back there and hike this trail before we leave this enchanted area of our country.