Today I did something so spectacularly stupid I am ashamed to document it – but it is the things that go wrong that make trips memorable so I will.

Before I get to that, however, let me describe the day’s itinerary. My alarm failed to go off (or maybe I slept through it) but I woke up to find a gorgeously sunny, cold day that was just perfect for spending a few hours absorbing the splendor of Zion National Park,

The park has two main sections, Zion Valley and the Zion-Mt. Carmel Road which is Utah state route 9.  Zion Valley is a narrow gorge, cut by the Virgin river, with red and white sandstone cliffs rising as high as 4,000 feet above the canyon floor. This area is so popular that it is only accessible by shuttle buses from the visitor center so I drove there, parked and caught the shuttle to enjoy the ride along the valley and walk a short trail from one of the shuttle stops. Since I am old enough to enjoy a “senior” pass to all National Parks (costing just $10 for life!!!) I only have to show this, plus my driver’s license, at the entrance station. Knowing that I was going to the visitor center, which is just inside the park, I popped the pass and license in the cup-holder and parked. Also in the cup-holder were an empty Skittles bag and the receipt and info sheet for Calico Ghost Town from yesterday. I decided to clear out the trash and, yes, I threw the papers, pass and license into a bear-proof trash can in the parking lot and got on the shuttle bus to Zion Canyon.

I was enjoying the ride and taking a few photos from the bus when, 25 minutes in, I remembered that my pass and driver’s license were in the car. I thought “I hope I didn’t leave them in plain sight” and then I suddenly remembered throwing out the trash and knew what I had done.  Needless to say, I got off at the next shuttle stop, hurriedly took a couple of photos, and then got on the next returning bus. When I eventually got back to the visitor center I rushed to the trash can, anxiously opened it up and peered in. The only thing I saw was a banana skin until I reached to the bottom and, hiding under a fold in the big, black plastic liner, found my trash. I recovered my pass and license and was relieved that my “senior” moment had not been a disaster. Obviously, I had not enjoyed Zion Canyon and didn’t have time to go back in but that was a small price to pay for such carelessness..

After that, everything about the day was perfect. I drove through the incredibly scenic Zion-Mt. Carmel Road section (which, if you have not been to Zion,  you have to see on the video), scrambled along a one-mile trail to a spectacular overview of the canyon and then drove to Bryce Canyon National Park. The map and video are here.

This is one of the two photos I took in Zion Canyon while waiting for a return shuttle bus. The Virgin river which looks like a stream at this location is responsible for carving the canyon.This view, from the Zion-Mt. Carmel Road, shows the height of the canyon walls. If you look just above the middle near the right edge you can see a black opening in the canyon wall. This is one of the openings in the mile-long tunnel that was built to get the road through the canyon (as seen on the video). The colors of the rock are amazing (this is a different, very short tunnel).This is one of the images I got from the canyon overlook. It was too extensive to fit everything in one frame even on wide angle.