First day out. 

Zion, Bryce and Maddie's Final Hike in the Carrier

Having half a week of vacation in November-December turns into quite a conundrum, because there aren't too many place to go where the weather is nicer than in Boulder. I'm not saying the weather's great, but it seems to be cool, dry and free of snow. Not enough snow in the mountains for skiing and a bit cool for biking. The desert seemed to be the best answer with crowds gone for the season and cooler weather than the blistering summers. We flew into Cedar City about an hour outside Zion and took the scenic drive to the Cliffrose Inn, a stone's throw from the park entrance. We got a screaming' deal on this place due to the late season rental being priced at about a third of the summer rate. Summer does seem like a nice time to visit though, crowds, 100+ degree temperatures and ridiculous lodging prices.

Anyway, our accommodations were quite nice, walking distance to the park entrance and several restaurants, nice views of the Watchman and a large steaming hot tub about 50 yards away. We were a little scared when we stopped for dinner and we were the only diners. However, our meal was good and our server informed us that few people visited the park this time of year and many restaurants would close in another week. It's a theme we'd see replayed throughout our visit.

Having arrived in the evening, we were pleasantly surprised by our surroundings in the morning and I had to restrain myself from stopping every 5 minutes to shoot photos on our way into the park. Our first spectacular vista, not far from the entrance.

Court of the Patriarchs

Our first day was spent grabbing the low-hanging fruit, short hikes with spectacular views, roadside vistas, etc. Zion Canyon Scenic Drive traces the Virgin river for about 10 miles along the base of the canyon while spectacular rock formations shoot steeply from the valley floor. We were surprised by how small the valley was and couldn't imagine huge crowds packed into this beautiful, compact area. In fact, you may only drive passenger vehicles along this stretch of road starting at the end of October. We walked the Riverside path until its end along the Virgin River where one enters The Narrows. More on that later

Virgin River

The Pulpit at the Temple of Sinawava

The trail to Emerald Pools led us to a few big muddy puddles, but Maddie had some fun climbing the Swiss/Cheddar cheese rock.

Views along Emerald Pools trail

The Watchman as seen from the Cliffrose Inn

Sunset lights the rocks behind the Cliffrose as seen from the hot tub

After some dinner, we rested and departed for a hike up to Angel's Landing the following morning. Em was hesitant to hike this one with Maddie due to steep drop offs, but we did fine and the girls turned back before things got to harrowing on the final ascent. The park has placed metal posts and chains along the final climb to Angel's Landing and for good reason. I believe this is was probably the most dangerous hike I've seen in the national parks. My heart was in my throat for the final half mile as I clung to the chains while climbing the exposed rock. The only time I can remember being more apprehensive on a hike was off-trail while summiting Kahili on Kauai (the pointed mountain visible from our house). Grey weather made for obscured views and poor photos at the summit so I was quick to retreat and damn happy to make it back to Em and Maddie.

Angel's Landing

View from atop Angel's Landing

The Troll Hole

We descended Walter's Wiggles back to the trailhead, a definite quad buster due to the steepness of the trail. You can see Em and Maddie a few switchbacks beneath my vantage point in the picture below.

Walter's Wiggles and Angel's Landing pic poached from the internet

After surviving Angel's Landing, a few gross Utah beers were in order. Utah is not well known for their beer, save a few. With Em and Maddie needing a day to rest, I planned a hike through the Narrows for the following day. The Narrows are known as the defining hike in Zion and the source for many of the slot canyon pictures you see. Hiking entails stomping through the river (40 degrees) over slippery moss covered rocks while wearing a drysuit, neoprene booties and big river-walking shoes. Temperatures were to be in the 30's the following day and I was welcomed to the Narrows by snowflakes. A beautiful day to be slogging through waist-deep, nearly freezing water. To make matters worse (or more annoying, anyway), my wide-angle lens malfunctioned on the first shot in the Narrows. Every photo required me to shut of the camera and turn it back on. Sadly the light that day was grey and flat, so I couldn't do the Narrows justice with what I captured. A few decent ones below.

Sunset from Zion Canyon Scenic Drive

Maddie and Em spent the day in more pleasant conditions, checking out displays at the Visitor's Center and reading in the warmth of the condo.
After grabbing morning coffee, we drove to a different area of Zion up Zion Mt. Carmel road through the tunnel with peek-a-boo views cut through the rock. We spent some time walking along the Canyon Overlook trail and playing around on the rocks.

The daily wake-me-up (hot chocolate)

Fresh snow on the mountains

Maddie, the budding photographer took this one

Next, we hiked the East Rim trail, but ran out of daylight before getting any views into the canyon. Notably, this was designated as the final hike with the kid carrier. It nearly brought tears to my eyes. Almost 4 years ago, Maddie was beginning to hold her head up, a requirement to ride. Now, after covering close to 1000 miles together on Kauai, the Big Island, Oahu, Lanai, Molokai, Alaska, New Zealand, Kings Canyon, Rocky Mountain and now Zion... I can't believe it's over. I can't believe I'll never hoist that thing onto my back again with Maddie kicking and excited to get a snack. Crazy.

The Final Ride

The First Ride

On the drive back, some bighorn sheep were watching us pass by.

We enjoyed our last night then picked up a big breakfast the following morning and started our drive to Bryce Canyon for the day. Much of the park was closed due to the recent snow and the higher elevation of Bryce, but we still got to see some sweeping panoramas of canyons and hoodoos.

Our drive to the airport got a little complicated when we made a turn toward Cedar City and realized the pass was closed due to snow. We made it to the airport on time despite taking a roundabout route, then our flight was delayed. When we arrived in Salt Lake City, our flight was cancelled, but luckily immediately rescheduled. Arriving in Denver with icy temperatures and a good 6 inches of snow on the ground, we were pleased to see a nail in our rear tire. Luckily, it held air until we made it home. Amazing that we even made it.

Land of the Gingers

Gingers are freckled redheads in case you didn't know and Ireland had hordes of them. In any case, we had a fairly rough and tearful goodbye with Maddie since she didn't want us to leave.  It was probably related to school starting soon, another big separation event.  However, after multiple attempts to put her down for her nap we found her in my parents' family room again, but all smiles now.  She said "I decided not to be sad anymore.  Bye."  With that she went to bed and we didn't see her until our return from Ireland.

As usual, Delta screwed up our flights since one was booked on miles and the other purchased.  Somehow, when I check two bags and Emily checks none, our seats get separated.  Very logical.  As a result, at least Em ended up in comfort economy and I with an exit row since neither of our neighbors would trade.  We arrived in Dublin, took a bus to the train station then a train to Bray where we'd meet our REI travel group about 24 hours later.  Bray had two redeeming qualities: proximity to the ocean and Porterhouse brewpub.  The amusement park on the ocean didn't quite make it into the "redeeming qualities" category for our outdoorsy, trekking trip.

In a sleep-deprived daze, we ate a decent lunch at Porterhouse while I enjoyed their Wrasslers XXXX, the finest beer I'd encounter in Ireland.  To give you an idea of the depth of flavor, Guinness is what you pee when you drink Wrasslers.  Guinness might be the beer of Ireland, but they'd do themselves a favor to upgrade.  We took a short nap and then returned to Porterhouse for dinner.  It was good.

We slept, then ate a traditional Irish breakfast at the hotel which among other things included, blood pudding, white pudding, baked beans, soda bread, eggs, rashers, yogurt and fruit.  To translate, blood pudding is a sausage-like item which indeed contains animal blood and thus has a black appearance when cooked.  White pudding is similar sans animal blood, but because it contains pin oats, tastes very similar to goetta, a delicious German breakfast treat.  Both are served sliced. One helping of blood pudding served to meet my yearly allowance of blood as a major ingredient (this certainly does not include steak).  Ahhhh soda bread, so basic yet so delicious.  It was consistently the best bread I've ever had and they serve it at every meal.  The Irish beat the Nepali people (lentils and rice) in variety of diet, but not by much.  After breakfast, we waited for our hiking crew to arrive by shuttle from Dublin.  When they did, we found that we were the youngest by 20 years.  Em was promptly fired by me as trip planner just like she fired me when we were in Nepal driving through Kathmandu. 

We had a trip briefing and then took an uninspiring hike in gray weather along the coast to Greystones.  Considering the out and back nature of the hike, we opted for the train, but nearly resigned ourselves to walking when the train was closed for a fire on the tracks.  About 15 minutes later, the train reopened and we cruised back to Bray.

Peacock butterfly on the Bray-Greystones hike

Dinner at the hotel in Bray was below average, but we learned a lot about our hiking companions.  Most were kindred spirits.
The following morning we ventured to a monastic village with its ancient ruins and cemetery founded in the 6th century by St. Kevin of Glendalough.

Next we hiked along Wicklow Way in the Wicklow mountains to the Spinc and got a nice taste of Irish weather.

We travelled to Kilkenny next, stopped first at the weavers in Avoca and then toured Kilkenny Castle briefly.  We toured and learned quite a bit in Cahir castle.

Kilkenny Castle

Killkenny (very European looking)

Rock of Cashel

Hore Abbey

Cahir Castle

Later that day our "hike" consisted of a walk along a gravelly trail to some bunk tourist destination called the Swiss Cottage, which is a replica of a cottage that was never lived in, but owned by some rich people last century.  Lame.  I couldn't wait to get out of there.  We proceeded to Castletownbere on the Beara peninsula that afternoon for some non-replica experiences.  Hiking along the rugged Irish coastline was far more pleasing that being stuck in a "simple country cottage" (the cottage operator repeated this annoyingly over 100 times).

To get to the following hike on Dursey Island, we took a rickety cable car that nearly made Em have a heart attack.

Napoleonic towers (watchtowers built to keep an eye out for that short guy)

Our new guide for the day, Paddy (I swear that was really his name) took us along some of his childhood trails in the Gleninchaquin Park where he was raised.  That night I had the best seafood chowder of my life and I enjoyed watching Paddy, who had one too many Guinness, try to fondle all the female trekkers as we parted ways.

Closeup of flowering gorse which covers the hills an imparts a yellowish hue

We're totally in love

After spending the night in Kenmare, we drove through Moll's Gap and took in some big views before starting our hike through Killarney National Park.  Great hikes except we departed early due to some rumblings in Em's belly.  Tragedy was averted and we got to spend some much needed time apart from the group.

Dingle was our next destination with many, many pubs, decent restaurants and nice coastal views.  We had the afternoon and evening to ourselves, a blessing after 8 days with a group of people we'd never met.  We spent the afternoon trying to find some different beer to no avail.  Ironically, we met some our fellow trekkers, ones we actually cared to see, and had a pretty good pizza dinner with them.  Our final day of trekking was spent walking up Slea Head, briefly swarmed by some blackflies, then watching a torrential downpour heading toward us.  Thankfully, the weather diverted and we ended up with a nice end to our hiking.  That evening we had our best dinner, lots of wine (couldn't stomach anymore Guinness) and topped it off with some fine Middleton Irish Whiskey compliments of Tom, the clown in the final picture.

Impending downpour

One of our fellow trekkers

We parted ways with our fellow trekkers in Shannon, but not before learning that our return flight had been cancelled due to the hurricane Irene.  Sadly, we were ready to return home at that point and see Maddie, not "enjoy" another  day of vacation.  My flight was automatically rescheduled, but Em had to go through a lot to get a a roundabout flight back to the U.S. through Paris.  Without going into too many details, I made it back to Denver over 26 hours of travel (in first class, but still miserable) and Em made it to Cincinnati to get Maddie in a little over 20 hours.  An adventuresome end to a fairly mild vacation.

P.S.  Sorry the narrative was a bit sparse, but I'm way behind so better to catch up with shorter posts, than never catch up.