Utah, USA

I headed out to the annual American Industrial Hygiene Conference (AIHce) in Salt Lake City for a few days of education and mingling with old colleagues. In the mornings before the conference I ventured into the streets and hills for a few spectacular runs through the city. One morning I started out early and ran up City Creek Canyon Road, a scenic paved road that ascends up into the foothills just north of the city.

City Creek Canyon Road

Wednesday afternoon Carolyn flew out to SLC and picked me up at the hotel in our sweet Buick rental car. I don't understand how we acquired such a luxurious vehicle since we booked the cheapest car we could find, but it was a welcome addition to the road trip south. 

Our first stop was the small town of Panguitch, Utah where we stayed at the Blue Pine Motel. Panguitch is a quaint little town about 30 miles from Bryce Canyon. It has a good ice cream shop and cafe for breakfast and hosts a quilt festival every year which we missed by a week. In the morning we stocked up on some camp food and headed just outside of Bryce Canyon National Park to Ruby's Inn, which has a buffet, campground and RV Park, as well as a hotel. This was the hub for the Bryce 100/50 mile races, so we grabbed an over priced campsite for three nights of car camping amidst ponderosa pines and large, obnoxious homes on wheels. 

Home and New Tent (Big Agnes Copper Spur 2)

In the afternoon, after setting up our new tent, which I'm not entirely sold on yet, we headed out to the Bryce Canyon NP to go on a hike through the park. We settled on the Fairyland Loop hike which is near the north of the park, and makes its way 8 miles down and up through the famous hoodoos of the area. 

The next day we were going to check out a cool slot canyon called Willis Creek Canyon, but after going to the BLM visitor's center to see what condition the dirt road was in to determine if we could make it without a 4WD vehicle, the clerk discouraged us from going since there were severe thunderstorms incoming, creating a potentially dangerous flash flood situation in the canyon.

She advised us to check out Kodachrome State Park, which was nearby. After we arrived, we sat in the parking lot as a huge storm system rolled through. Pea to peanut size hall started falling from the sky. Soon a small ravine which was dry moments before started gushing with water. As soon as the storm started, it stopped, refilling the sky with blue once again.

We went on a short 2 mile hike around the State Park, looking at the neat geology. This whole area of Utah (Bryce Included) is part of the Grand Staircase, which is basically a massive geologic feature that has different shelves of lime and sandstone which vary in color the higher or lower the elevation. Bryce Canyon is referred to as the pink shelf, whereas the Kodachrome is mostly red. The contrasts of colors are pretty impressive regardless of which step your on.

We got back to our campsite late afternoon and headed to the buffet. It was the eve before I was to run 50 miles and almost 10,000 feet through the mystical lands surrounding Bryce, so I needed a bunch of energy to sustain myself for the next days festivities. The buffet wasn't bad, they had a good salad and soup bar that was more than adequate. I went to the pre-race meeting at 6:30, got my drop bag together, and then headed to bed early to try and get some sleep.

The Race

My alarm beeped at 3:30 AM and a groggily put my shorts and shirt, ate a bagel and a banana and headed out to the staging area. Since this was a point to point race, we all boarded shuttle buses which drove us to the start. It was a really cool (upper 40s), foggy morning, which was actually perfect weather for running, but not for views early on in the race.

Getting Ready to Start

The morning was pretty good and I reached the first aid station in an hour and the next aid station the hour after that. 12 miles within two hours was a pretty good start and I was feeling strong. I wasn't really used to all the climbing but I was trying my best. I reached the halfway (25 mile) point just under 5 hours and was happy with that.

I reached Proctor Aid station (33 miles) at 7 hours after spending 2 hours running 8 miles, which wasn't the best. This section had a lot of tough climbing which wore me down to a brisk hike on the uphills.Carolyn was waiting at the aid station with my drop bag, which was gave me a good boost for the next section. I was able to run for a straight hour without walking after the aid station. All that goodness came to a halt after a massive storm cell cruised over head, producing thunder, lightning and hail. The trail turned to mud and welts starting to form all over my arms from the hail. It was unreal. I reached the final aid stations at around 9.5 hours, so it took me 2.5 hours to go 8 miles, which wasn't good. It took me another 2 hours to reach the finish line. My final time was 11:40, and I came in 53rd place. I'm not sure how many total people ran, but there were 108 finishers. I'm pretty satisfied with my result considering I live in one of the flattest parts of the country.

The End

The following morning we packed up our camping gear and headed to Zion National Park. It was a mistake thinking I was just going to drive up and grab a car camping site in the park. Zion is the most visited National Park in Utah, and I saw first hand what that meant. We ran into a traffic jam on the road leading into the park - not a good omen.

It's a long line of cars...

The campsite, as well as all of the parking areas, were packed full, like an overstuffed suitcase ready to explode at any second. We drove out of the park, to the southern part of Springdale, the small town right outside the park, and took the shuttle in. Zion doesn't let you drive the road along the canyon. You have to take a park shuttle which drives up and down the canyon at regular intervals and drops you off at different points. Zion reminded me of an amusement park. There were people everywhere waiting to get on the shuttle to go hiking.

We took the shuttle to The Grotto stop, and picked the West Rim Trail, which basically ascends 2500 feet in 2.5 miles. I thought picking this would take us on something not a lot of people would do, but I was horribly wrong. It was like herding cattle up a hill. At the top you can go an additional 0.5 mile up to Angels Landing, which is a very exposed ridge up to a pinnacle viewing point. I stopped because there were so many people, rendering the ascent kind of sketchy.

So Many People

We left the park that night, not needing to spend any more time there. Zion was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but the hoards of people took away most of the magic. Backcountry permits are super coveted, and I guess you need to reserve them months in advance or get lucky with the few they give out on a lottery bases. I'm sure it would be neat to get out into the Zion backcountry, away from the crowds.

We spent the evening driving back out to Salt Lake City. We decided to get a hotel there for a few nights. Carolyn hadn't' spent any time in the city, and we also thought we'd take the opportunity to hike a bit in the Wasatch Range which is right outside the city.

The following morning we hiked Grandeur Peak, which sits around 8300 ft with beautiful views of the city and surrounding mountains. This was a pretty awsome hike and hard to believe only a 15 minutes drive from downtown.

We went back to the hotel after the hike and showered up for a night out in SLC. We stopped by an incredible vegan diner place called Vertical Diner which had some of the best veggie burgers and fried I've ever had. Later, we went to the Beerhive for some drinks and then went to a neat independent movie theater and watched a documentary about BASE Jumping (people that  jump and parachute off buildings and bridges and stuff - no thanks). We topped off the night with some delicious gelato at the local Italian joint. 

The following day we said goodbye to the awesomeness that is Utah to head back to Ohio and our regular lives. Utah exceeded my expectations and I can't wait to get back there someday to explore the many parts we missed.