Our highly anticipated trip to the national parks...

On Monday (12/15), we said goodbye to Jeff and headed from LA to southern Utah, via Las Vegas, to start our tour of the national parks (Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, and the Grand Canyon). It was pouring rain in LA, but we figured once we drove a few dozen miles, we'd escape the storm and be fine. You'd be right if you guessed that we hadn't been watching the weather channel. Little did we know that the southwest was being hit by a HUGE storm of rain and snow all over southern CA, southern Utah, and Arizona. But we naively drove out of LA toward Las Vegas, and about an hour outside of LA, we discovered that the CA state troopers (or Dept. of Transportation, not sure which) had officially CLOSED our highway through the Cajon Pass (where the highway goes through the mountains). They suggested on many flashing signs, "Seek alternate route." So we heeded their advice, reviewed our map, and found an alternate route that took us around the mountains and joined us back up with I-15 (our highway) on the other side. Alas... this ALTERNATE route was ALSO closed! Or rather, they required chains on your tires to pass through... CHAINS, in southern California! For Bostonians like ourselves, this seemed absolutely absurd! So despondant, we sought another alternate route... and we ended up driving an extra six hours to get to Zion National Park. Unbelievable! (See the picture of snow-covered palm trees for proof of the absurdity!) But the next morning, we woke up to a beatifully snow-covered Zion National Park... a description you can only ascribe to Zion about once a year, given its generally warm climate. But we put on our hiking pants, long underwear, multiple layers of fleece, and set out for our hike. At this point, I think both of us imagined that the snow would only add an extra detail to the scenary, not a huge hurdle to the hiking... what we didn't realize was that they don't actually clear any of the hiking trails when it snows. They rely on hard-core hikers (not us!) to hike the trails anyway and leave footprints for the occasional hikers to follow. So we found ourselves hiking through 6-24 inches of snow for the next two days!!! At first, we tried out best to step ON the snow and avoid getting snow on our shoes... but we quickly realized that was futile and proceded to thoroughly enjoy tromping through the snow full-force and watching the dry, sand-like snow fall right off our shoes. Moving past the basic logistics of the hiking, both Zion and Bryce (we'll leave the Grand Canyon for the next post) were AMAZING! Zion was stunning in the snow, with gorgeous red mountains and high, peaked rock formations. While in Zion, we (well actually I) spotted two difference groups of mule deer... the only real land mammals we've seen this trip. They were very cool (see picture) and we felt particularly victorious for finding them!!! Then, Bryce Canyon was a lot like Cappadocia, a region of Turkey we visited in 2004, with "hoodoos"... tall spires with funny rock caps on top... and other incredible tower-like stone pillars. We took TONS of pictures, which we will post eventually (to Picasa, YouTube, or Facebook), but I'll put up a few here so you can see them. Our hotel in Bryce was also of note... Ruby's Inn, a hotel that has been housing visitors to the canyon for almost 100 years (since 1916!). It had a GREAT lobby, with huge plush leather couches, a great fireplace, and (yes, I'll admit they were pretty cool) large, stuffed animals (deer, stags, mountain lions, goats, etc.) adorning the walls. We also got to enjoy a great indoor pool and hottub... perfect after our long day of hiking! Anyway, we hiked through both parks in the snow, and we were completely mesmerized... special shout out to the National Parks Service for doing such a great job helping visitors like us enjoy incredible national natural wonders! That's all for now... we'll post about the Grand Canyon soon, and then we'll finally be caught up on our blog! We hope to hear from you too... don't forget, as our loyal followers, that we also wait and hope for comments from you. Lots of love, Dena & Amit P.S. For those of you who are interested, Amit and I found out the other day that we were both accepted to UChicago Booth School of Business. Hurray! Still waiting for other responses, we'll keep you posted...