Nature – Page 8 – travellingzombie.com

We Found Water in a Deserted Place

The drive into Zion had been beauty of a different kind compared to our other stops. Twisting roads and reddish rock encased us as we wound our way into the canyon.

Our first stop in Zion was to the Watchman Campground to set up our gear. That was easier said than done. You’d think that as seasoned campers, we would know how it’s done and have everything we need. Nope! What we hadn’t realised was that the campsites in Zion are on a rocky surface, not flat forest ground. This is probably to try and deter critters and ants from seeing the tent as a new home, however it also meant that we had no place to secure our tent pegs. This was our first obstacle, but certainly not our last. Having secured the tent as best we could (think bags and rocks weighing down the corners), two of us set off for the local shop for supplies whilst two stayed behind to work on the tent.

Arriving at the shop, we found it mostly empty. The shopkeeper (almost certainly an extra from some B movie horror) told us ominously that a storm was coming and that we should make sure that we were safely under shelter when it hit. We were a little naive at this point – the skies were still blue and not a drop of rain in sight! We meandered around the shop, picking up supplies and slowly but surely the day started to darken. By the time we left the shop, we were sprinting to the car, soaked through as the rain ran in rivers down the road, filling the storm gulley to the brim.

Meanwhile, back in the tent, the rain was battering the sides, making our temporary home even more precariously weighted down than it was to start with! These floods and high winds hit sporadically throughout the time we were there, often in the middle of the night, leaving us holding on to the tent poles to make sure that we didn’t blow away! They often lasted little more than an hour or so and were in massive contrast to the scorching sunshine we experienced throughout the day. It was actually that hot that our air beds curved with the heat!

One of our day hikes took us out to the Emerald Pools and waterfalls. You’d think that somewhere like Zion, full of rock and dust, wouldn’t be the best place for waterfalls but you’d be wrong! Upper, Middle and Lower Emerald Pools are all accessible from near the Grotto Picnic area. It was a boiling hot day and although the hike was very warm, it was well worth it for the sights – although the water wasn’t very Emerald in colour on our visit, instead it was coloured a reddish brown from the rock.

The most exciting part of the hike for me was the trail around Lower Pools which actually lets you walk underneath the waterfall. We went in late summer and so the flow wasn’t too strong, more of a light mist pouring over the ledge above us, dusting us with cool water that was refreshing against the relentless hot sun. I’d imagine that in winter this would be a very different experience! We spent quite a bit of time here, taking in the sights and snapping photos under the waterfall in an awe-filled silence. The various colours of the rock provided an stunning backdrop and there was something otherworldly about being behind the fall of the waterfall.

The pathway past the lower falls curved back on itself, winding upwards towards the Middle Pools which provided a good view of the path of the water as it fell down to the ledge below. The source of the water, Upper Falls, opened out to a huge pool, surrounded by some shady spots – a beautiful place to stop for lunch! The views looking out over the valley are amazing, made all the more picturesque by the mix of colours in the red rock, deep water pools and patches of green trees.

This was a fairly easy hike. It’s always useful to have good sturdy shoes for hiking rocky pathways (particularly with good ankle support) to avoid twists and sprains. We also saw a couple of snakes and lizards on the pathways and so the extra height on my shoes made me feel a bit more able to avoid them as I walked!

Another one of our hikes took us out to the Narrows. This is the narrowest part of Zion Canyon and offers a few different options for hikers. The start of the Narrows is accessible from a fairly smooth hiking path – the Riverside Walk. This takes you as far as the river, which more adventurous hikers might want to follow to travel further into the Narrows, although permits are needed for progressing past certain parts of the route. If you want to walk further than the paved section of the hike, you need to wade through the flow of the river – so good sturdy shoes, hiking poles and some dry socks for the way down are a must. It’s also really important to be good at navigating and reading weather conditions to make sure you are safe in the Narrows – many people have found themselves in difficulties in this area after experiencing flash floods, strong currents or getting lost.

When we arrived at this point, the water was up to our shins and fairly fast moving. Given that there was a very high risk of flash floods that day (and we’d already seen first hand how quickly a huge amount of rain could come down) and that we weren’t really prepped for hiking in water, we decided to not go much further than this, content with seeing the start of the winding caverns of the Narrows.

An Unexpected Favourite: Whistler, Canada

A quick stop in summer-time Whistler

Before we went on our most recent trip to Canada, many people told us that Whistler wasn’t as popular or beautiful as Banff and therefore we probably shouldn’t spend as long there, if we visited it at all. Seeing as we haven’t been before, we decided to build in a day’s stay at the little ski resort on our way through to our next big stop.

The journey from Vancouver was stunning, at every curve of the road there was something to see. Deep blue lakes with imposing mountings rising upwards to transform into snow-dusted peaks. If this was scenery that people thought we could miss, then they were missing the point!

Arriving at Whistler was a really nice surprise – the little complex is really well built, hiding amongst the scenery without impacting on the surrounding landscape. We were staying at Pan Pacific Whistler Mountain which was absolutely stunning – all wooden panelling and log fires!

The immediate area around the hotel was paved to create a meandering, circular complex, full of restaurants and shops. Although it was quite commercial (it’s going to be, the whole place is designed as a ski resort), it managed to be so well designed that you almost didn’t mind. A stream cut through the centre of the stone walkway, which broke up the run of shops and ensured that the natural draw of the mountain wasn’t forgotten.

We went in the summer, so there was no skiing on the mountain, however, that didn’t mean that it was quiet. In fact, the place was bustling, with biking and dirt trails replacing the snow and ski boots.

As we were only there for a short stay (just the one night), we went in search of a short trundle to see what Whistler had to offer. It was quite late in the afternoon and so we chose to head off down towards Lost Lake, a stunning lake in the middle of Lost Lake Park and only a short walk from the hotel.

Within minutes of leaving the village complex, the trees closed in, hugging the edge of the woodland trail. It was a beautiful walk, initially requiring us to cross over a roaring stream which was captivating to watch. We made sure to create noise and check our surroundings frequently as we were the only ones on the path and we didn’t want to unintentionally creep up on an unsuspecting bear! Being bitten alive by all of the mosquitoes helped to keep us shouting!

The lake itself was beautiful. The surrounding mountains created an imposing backdrop to the calm waters. What we hadn’t expected was the beach and grassy areas surrounding the lake. As it was summer, there were people playing ball games and chilling out on the sand. Its easy to imagine a very different picture in the winter when the lake freezes over and the beach is covered in snow! It would be nice to see it in winter to compare our experiences.

Leaving Vancouver, the people we shared our route with told us to expect places to get more commercial and expensive, the closer we got to Whistler, Jasper and Banff. This felt like almost counter-intuitive advice, given that we were heading away from the big cities and towards mountains and national parks. It did hold to be true, however, which was somewhat disappointing – we like our mountains and lakes to stay rural, not to be encompassed by a shopping street! That being said, Whistler integrated the shopping areas and natural beauty well. The design of the village was well thought out to ensure that the sight of the mountains towering across the skyline wasn’t lost.

Although we loved Whistler, it was still easily one of the most expensive places that we stayed on our trip. This was partly because we’d left it fairly late to book accommodation, but also because Whistler is a fairly expensive place generally. Obviously, if you are heading there in the winter to ski, some of the cost is unavoidable. If you aren’t bothered about skiing, consider visiting in the summer instead. Although it’s not classed as ‘off peak’, there are some better deals on hotels and with a great number of trails to explore, there are lots of cheap (or free!) things to do!

Did you find Whistler expensive or cheap? What are your tips for easing the costs when staying at this location? Tell us in the comments.

Happiness Only Real When Shared: Reflections From The Top of Sulphur Mountain, Banff.

We look back at our favourite image from 2017

As we hurtle towards the end of the year, we thought that we would look back on the year until now. 2017 saw the launch of this blog and it’s great to have been able to share some of our adventures with you!

Helpfully, the daily post’s photo challenge this week was on the topic of favourite photos from this year. With this in mind, me and Wandering Beeb went digging through our photos to see what we would class as our favourites.

Some of the stand out ones from this year were our ‘walking the glacier‘ set – just because the experience was so surreal and so different to our usual trips.

The photos on Sulphur Mountain in Banff grabbed us and made sense for us to share on this theme, although probably not for the reasons you would think!

Sulphur Mountain was impressive, with stunning views on a near 360 degree viewing platform. We were lucky in that the haze from the forest fires had cleared a little, moving the view of the mountains from a fuzzy outline in the distance to 3D relief, affording us some stunning vistas. We made the short trundle from the observation deck to the now defunct Cosmic Ray Station, heading up inclines made manageable for most visitors by structured steps and under-foot decking. So much so that a small child was walking confidently the length of the observation deck, loudly proclaiming ‘Eeek’ to the surrounding mountains, blissfully unconcerned with the breath-taking drop below. Looking back at the photos, the views are clearly stunning, but this wasn’t the reason for singling them out.

One of the best things about travelling is speaking to other people from different cultures, countries and perspectives – even when it’s only briefly. Those snippets of conversation are what add flavour to the otherwise routine trawl through the sightseeing gambit and it was the connections we made on this part of the trip that we were reminded of by these photos.

Whizzing along on the upward gondola trip, we found ourselves sharing the four person gondola with two guys who were catching up on a trip out to Banff. They explained that they had been neighbours 10 years earlier, with one of the pair only being a kid at the time. Learning about two people and their stories in an 8 minute ride up the mountain can only give you a flavour of their history, but we had the sense that they were two really cool guys, enjoying their time catching up. There was an easy-going banter between the two of them which helped to reduce my anxiety at being suspended above the ground by a single cable.

The way down saw us sharing the space with a couple from Sweden who were clearly as freaked out by the height as I was (you can read more about my terrible relationship with gondolas here).

Despite the anxiety, we talked about their trip, starting with Reykjavik, heading on to Quebec and learning about their observations on Toronto (a smaller version of NYC). We shared our views on Vancouver (to which they were heading soon). They took a couple of snaps and asked us about our football preferences back home in the UK (Zatan was a favourite topic of conversation). As soon as people find out we are from Manchester, the first question is always ‘are you a red or a blue?’ By the time the gondola had reached the bottom and we wished each other happy travels, we had shared travel tips, made new acquaintances and had some ideas for our future travels. It’s those memories that have made these photos some of our favourites.

This is our favourite part of travelling and regardless of beautiful scenery and amazing experiences, it’s the people and the connections that makes the journey worthwhile.

What a difference a month makes

How Mirror Lake in Yosemite Changes in Just Two Months

We often struggle with picking where to go on our holidays. Holiday time is so precious and if you don’t get that many days off, you have to make the most of them when you do. So we usually spend ages looking at where to go and what to see when we get there.

Often the ‘when’ of our trips can be pretty set in advance – usually when the flight prices are cheaper or working around particular seasons (e.g. avoiding rainy seasons). One thing that it’s easy to forget to consider is the differences that a couple of weeks can make to your experience of a destination.

A good example of this is our trip to Mirror Lake in Yosemite. We’ve been there on a couple of occasions but the last time we visited, we went slightly earlier in the year – there wasn’t too much of a difference, we are talking a visit in early June rather than late July. The difference in scenery, however, was astounding.

This is Wandering Beeb’s photo of Mirror Lake, or more accurately, Mirror Meadow on our first trip. Green lush grass and trees with lots of boulders and sand filled the valley.

The visit in late July saw stunning scenery, the centre of which was a field, surrounded by Yosemite’s recognisable granite cliffs. It was a lush setting, with huge boulders dotted throughout the area and sand drifts marking the uneven ground. Mirror Lake (or Mirror Meadow as it’s sometimes known due to the lack of water) is around a 1-3 hour round-trip, starting at shuttle stop number 17. The lake is a hangover from the glacial lake which once filled most of Yosemite Valley, standing at 4000ft elevation. Standing in the middle of the meadow, the cliffs surrounded us, building cut-outs in the blue sky.

Jumping forward to our visit to the same spot in early June a couple of years later and the place was unrecognisable in comparison! The same granite cliff faces surrounded us but this time, there was no meadow to stand in. Instead we stood on the edge of a serene lake, silent and glass-like. It was hard to believe that the small number of weeks had made such a difference.

Mirror Lake in early June – the water was full and still, creating the perfect reflection. We has stood here a few years earlier in the July when it was a dry meadow.

The still lake reflecting the granite cliffs. It was dizzying to look down on the reflection without seeing any disturbance in the water.

The trail around the lake is a really nice walk, lined with little cairns. These piles of balanced rock had filled one part of the trail, creating an interesting spectacle. Cairns have been used throughout history for a range of different reasons, often marking buried resources, graves or trailheads. The ones at Mirror Lake don’t seem to serve this purpose and raise an interesting debate on how people view them. Some say they see them as a temporary art piece, an example of humans making their mark in an environmentally friendly(ish) way. Others say they are a form of graffiti, disrupting natural placement of stones and making a mark on nature that shouldn’t be there.

Little stone cairns dotted around the trail at Mirror Lake in Yosemite. Historically used to make trail heads, resources or burial sites, these ones don’t seem to hold any purpose. Some say these are an eyesore, a type of graffiti, others see them as temporary art work.

Much less organised than the cairns were the huge rocks dotted around the lake. Standing on one of the larger boulders, the stillness of the water perfectly reflected Half Dome and we quickly set down our day packs to whip out our cameras to capture the image. The dual image of the rocks above us and their inverted view below was dizzying but beautiful, the images we captured failing to do it justice.

Wandering Beeb at Mirror Lake, silhouetted against the huge granite cliffs of Yosemite.

Have you been to Mirror Lake? When is the best time of year to visit? What’s your take on the cairns – are they temporary art or graffiti?