Nonfiction Review: Opening Zion

Based off of two scrapbooks purchased on Ebay and other research, this book shares the 1920 promotional campaign from Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad to advertise their park shuttle service as well as Zion National Park. Six young ladies from the University of Utah were the newly minted park's first official tourists. And judging by their pictures, they had a great time. 

My Thoughts: 
I wanted to read this book after hearing a park ranger talk about it while we were hiking Zion National Park last year. Observation Point was a hard hike for me, but the scenery was amazing!



I really liked the book, but I felt that I didn't get a good sense of the ladies.

The pictures were amazing.

I would have set the book up differently to understand the characters more and be able to differentiate between the ladies. I had a hard time telling them apart. 

What an amazing trip they went on!

A very interesting feminist story about these six young ladies. I wish more was known about them and their journey. 

My vacation

Two weeks ago, I took a week long vacation with my husband. We were supposed to go to Glacier National Park, but because of the wildfires, we changed everything at the last minute. And it was wonderful. We did lots and lots of hiking.

First we went to Bryce National Park. Because of the time different, our bodies were way off. We woke up wicked early. But we went into the park and watched the Sunrise - from Sunrise Point.

 

Then we hiked the inner loops and saw all the hoodoos.

We took a drive through the rest of the park and took some photos

Glen Canyon:

We did some kayaking here to some narrows.


Then we hiked in the narrows for a bit. It looked like something out of a Starwars movie.

Then we went to Horseshoe Bend. Which was a short hike, but it was in the full sun and it was HOT. But the view was worth it. 

We went to Zion National Park next, which was pretty cool. We spent the most time here going on lots of hikes. The first one was Observation Point - and it was the worst. Mostly again because of the sun and the heat. It was really great for the first third. The middle third was ok. And that last third almost broke me. But I made it. 

Here's a cool part from the first part:

The top was worth it.

We had lunch here on the Quad, as I like to call it. Or the Lodge Green as everyone else calls it. Not a bad place to have lunch.

My favorite hike was the river hike. We did this on the last day. It was the last day there and it was mostly all in the shade. The scenery was gorgeous. We had river shoes which made everything squishy, but better to walk in. We got up early to beat the weather and the crowds. We had lunch again on the Quad and just soaked up the scenery. 

 

Here's a small waterfall:

It was a beautiful vacation.