So, with a weekend as my timeline, I packed up me and my roommate, Memphis, and headed up the road toward Utah.  For those who have never met Memphis, he adores me. He’s kinda like a clingy boyfriend who wants to be loved on non-stop, all the time. ALL THE TIME. NON-STOP. I reserved a room at the pet-friendly La Qinta Inn Resort about three miles from the park entrance. After the long drive, I just wanted to sit in bed and watch TV until I knocked out from exhaustion. He wanted his belly rubbed all night!  Then he got all this energy and decided to jump from bed to bed like a little kid in a hotel. After some compromising on both our parts, sleep found us.  The next morning, in little kid fashion, I woke up to Memphis walking in my back ready to go before 7 am on a Saturday. After convincing him to hit the snooze button, I headed out of the lodge for the complimentary breakfast provided by the hotel, and had my breath taken away as soon as I stepped outside my door.

First thing I saw when I stepped outside my hotel room.

In my travel journal, I wrote:

Memphis and I loaded up the car and drove three miles to sit in the longest line outside the gate.  At 0900, I was already behind the early bird curve to get into the park. I flashed my park pass (which is a free annual pass if you are a Federal Government worker) and got informed by the gate staff that there is only one trail in the whole 229 square mile park that Memphis was allowed to travel.  I was initially disgruntled that my only option with my companion was the Pa’rus Trail. Turns out, that was one heck of a trail. It’s about two miles in length following the river, and gorgeous views at every turn. I was surrounded by beauty all around. Again, I was overwhelmed with disbelief  that this wonderland is still part of my country. I had a hard time grasping that this place, so drastically different from where I grew up is still part of the same nation.

While on the trail, I met an upper middle-aged couple taking pictures with their big fancy cameras. Turns out they were from Connecticut.

“We’re not tourists,” the husband said. “We’ve lived here for seven years and we still come on weekends to take a picture. There’s just so much to see at different times of day and year,” he said.  And I believed it. The walk out on the trail was vastly different from the walk back. I couldn’t stop taking pictures!

I got a little saddle time in too. On the other side of the park (opposite the Springdale Gate) I discovered a charming ranch and had to stop to check it out.  At Zion Mountain Ranch, three girls with my name (rarity) went horseback riding. While saddled up we talked about the things that tend to bring strangers together: travel, food, adventures, and guys. One girl was from the same SoCal area I live in now. She visited Zion a year ago, fell in love with the area, and moved there. She grew up on horses and got a job at the ranch, went to college nearby, and found a Utah cowboy to love. I asked her take on Utah men vice California ones, because for a southern girl, California guys were like nothing I’d come across before. Fellas who cut their own grass, and maintain their own cars, and do handy work around the house seemed to be rare in SoCal according to the native and me, the newbie. Traditional courtship is harder to find in SoCal than Utah apparently. This region of Utah is considered the high desert and snows mercilessly in the winter. As a Cali girl, her first winter was unbarable. So she, being of similar spirit as me, planned to spend next winter in Thailand with her beau. I love that idea…avoid the winter!

The ranch had a spring of new arrivals.  Three mares came up mysteriously pregnant. One mare just dropped a foal without showing any signs of pregnancy. In fact, she’d been ridden pretty long earlier that day and no one was none the wiser until a baby just fell out of her like no big deal. Well eventually, the stealthy stallion was caught in the act.  He got castrated. But he sired four new foals before being caught. Watching the new-borns keeping up with their mamas as they sprinted  across the ranch was a sight to see.

It was on this ranch that I finally got to see Buffalo! I was disappointed I never saw them while driving across the plains on my Cross-Country Road trip. Zion Mountain Ranch is a buffalo preserve and hundreds of buffalo roam freely here. Kinda like big cows.  Not as exciting as I’d hoped. But one of the girls got to have a cowboy-esqu adventure when buffalo left the preserve and it took three folks on horses to corral them back into their safe zone. Apparently, a sole rider on a horse can scare an adolescent buffalo back to the preserve. And older, adult male is not phased by a horse and might actually try to take one on.  With the quaint cabins at the ranch, coupled by the beauty of the park and outdoor adventure opportunity, I couldn’t help but the think how absolutely romantic this area had the potential to be (Honeymoon spot!).

If you get a chance, try this beer. FYI: In Utah, you are not allowed to have alcohol without food to go with it.

While the three of us rode our horses we discussed the Utah stereotypes. The first thing a lot of Americans think of when they consider Utah is Mormonism and possibly polygamy. On this trip I learned polygamy is not accepted by Latter Day Saints. Polygamist may call themselves Mormon, but Mormons don’t accept them as Mormon, Kinda like Baptists don’t claim Westboro Baptists.  You can usually tell the polygamist by their uniform of formless pastel-colored dresses reaching down to the ground and Rapunzel-like tresses. They tend to live in more remote areas and not common all over Utah.  A walk around the local Wal-Mart will be the most likely place for this cultural tourism (in fact, Wal-Mart seems to be the place for sub-culture tourism wherever you are).

Me at Bryce Canyon

Some 70 percent or so of Utah is preserved as a public state or national park.  In addition to Zion, there’s Arches National Park, Bryce Canyon, Capitol Reef, Canyonlands, Moab, Red Fleet, Monument Valley and more. Each park vastly different from the other. I don’t get a lot of that back home in the south. A state park in Kentucky is almost indistinguishable from a state park in Alabama (with the exception of Mammoth Cave National Park).  It’s a shame that the narrative of this state is centered around this counter-culture when the glory of Utah is its geo-diversity should be highlighted. Sure, the prevalence of Later Day Saint churches does stand out more than other states, but Utah is a big, beautiful, diverse state.  Utah has so much more to offer than that one minute, unique aspect. And I guess that’s the same for people. A person can be as amazing as Utah but have one negative aspect or make one mistake and that’s the part people will emphasize the most.

This trip was mesmerizing. I got to share it with my favorite roommate and made new friends.  This region instantly captured my heart and now is my American favorite. I cannot wait to visit Southern Utah again.