Zion Trip

I would say the trip to Zion Natinal Park was the best trip I ever had here in the States. I dunno why i felt so much for the trip...maybe Zion is just very different from Grand Canyon North Rim(the place where I stay). Oh ya....this is my first time stepping out of Grand Canyon North Rim since the day I came!!!

Both of these places have their strong points. Grand Canyon is one the 7 Natural Wonders in the world so of cos you would expect more majestic and grand scenery here. Its visitor lodge is located on the top of the canyon so visitors can enjoy overlooking the canyon at high altitude. It's cold even during summer. In contrast, Zion is located at the bottom of the canyon, totally opposite of Grand Canyon. Visitors have to look up to see the beautiful canyon. It has the lowest point in the whole United States which is about 25 feet below the sea level. Low also means that the place is hot and dry throughout the year! The temperature can shoot up to 110 Fahrenheit, which is about 40 plus degree celcius during the summer. The best time to visit Zion is during the winter cos the weather will be pretty good....not too cold...and not too warm as well!! I really love Zion so much!

We set off from Grand Canyon at 7.30am and arrived there 2.5 hours later. We had a short trail to the place where the Indianas used to stay, to check out all the carvings which were left behind by the Indianas. After that, we headed straight to Zion employee dining room to have lunch. The lunch there was so much better than the one we always have in Grand Canyon but I still prefer our dining room cos is much more cosier than theirs.

The carvings by the Indianas

@ Zion Visitor Centre

@ Zion Visitor shuttle stop

After lucnh, we took a shuttle bus to the starting point of Riverside Walk. The shuttle bus is pretty similar to the one we have in Sentosa. It's so convenient to get around in Zion cos the shuttle will stop at every hiking point. Gigi went for a hike alone at The Grotto cos she has been to Riverside Walk.

Me and Bertha on shuttle bus

The Riverside Walk is basically a river with canyon on both sides. What we did was just walking against the river heading towards the ending point. It's about 16 miles from the starting point to the end but we din go all the way in due to time constraint. The feeling is completely different at the bottom of the canyon. It's freaking hot down there but you can dip into the freezing cold river!! It was so damn fun!!

We divided ourselves into 2 groups, one group would try to go as far as they can and the other one will slowly enjoy their time taking nice pictures...haha...of cos we were the one who ent slow cos we are all photo sluts....always! We enjoyed it...who cares!

Bertha and me @ Riverside

Washing hands

From left: Hongwei, Sha Da Jie, Zeliang, Jing Jing, Zhou Zheng, Bertha, Lina and me!

The water level could rise up to ur chest when the canyon gets narrower...(for my case is neck level). It was fun walking with your body submerged under the water and u gotta carry ur bags high up in order to kep them dry!!!! It was nothing but fun!!!

Oh gosh...almost to my shoulder...not the deepest yet!

We took about 2 hours to walk as far as possible in and made a U-TURN back to the starting point. Along the way back, I climbed up to a small cave on the canyon to take pictures. The cave was pretty high, unfortunately I slid on the way down and got myself a deep cut on my body. Haha...it hurt but I had fun. The whole trail took us about 4 hours!! It was a great trail!

Lying down on freezing cold water

Me and Micheal in small tiny cave

This is how I got my cut!

Chipmunk...looks like Chwanz!

Headed back to EDR for dinner @ 4.20pm. After dinner, we had our last minute shoppings at the gift shop. After shopping, we quickly hopped on to the van and had safe ride back to Grand Canyon North Rim. Thanks Micheal for being such a great driver! I guess everyone had a great time in Zion! Bye Zion...I'll be back for sure one day!

Bye Zion...I'll be back!

Sunset on the way back

I was still very energetic when I came back. Went to play ball with my volleyball buddy Jakub and some other frens. After the game, had a quick shower and headed to EDR pub for a special event called International Night. The pub played all kinda of international music on that night such as Turkish, Czech, Slovakia, Ecuador and not forgetting our chinese music. Haha...my fren passed the the bartender the song "One Night in Beijing" and he played it....damn off la! You would be surprised if you were there. Ppl could be so wild when the drink! I'm sure lots of ppl made up after the party on that night. I was more mild kind...I played pool...haha...managed to beat most of the ppl I played with but lost terribly to Marinza...she's way too good than me...!

From left: Oscar, Joanne, Bertha, Jakub and me!

I also learnt a special "stun" from Jakub...it was cool....maybe can show u guys next time!! We hang out there until 2plus and lots of ppl gotta work at 6 or 7am the next day...I wondered how they gonna survive man!

Special "stun"

My cut!

Another wonderful day in Grand Canyon!!!