Day 8... From Peace to Chaos

After a decent nights kip, we took down the tents for the last time, ate breakfast and loaded up the buses. As we were doing this the dawn light began to reveal the mountains all around us, which was a surprise as in the dark they gave no clue as to their existence. I was kinda sad to be leaving camping behind. Despite the cold, it had been a magical time, with songs around the campfires, smoke in the eyes, breakfast in the dawn light, friendship and peace... this was going to be shattered at the end of today and dreading that made it seem worse to leave.

We drove to Zion N.P and to a side canyon called water canyon, parking up the buses before trekking into the base of the canyon and the trailhead. It was pretty warm and I soon found myself in just a t-shirt, a first for this trip.

Once we started on the route proper, it was pretty tough going with sand underneath our feet and the trail stretching uphill, fairly steeply over rocks and roots. It reminded me of the relentlessness of climbing Ben Nevis, in the way it stretched up without compassion for those climbing. As we quickly gained height, the view improved(when I remembered to actually look up from my feet), the canyon walls stretching upwards with the river below. Trees and greenery grew with impunity, one stretch reminding me of the unkept footpaths back home, with brambles at shoulder height trying to tear at the skin at every opportunity. Today we wore pink for world breast cancer day and in support of jules peters, who had fought breast cancer last year, but still managed to walk 5 miles to radiotherapy every day!

I don't own ANYTHING pink, and because I thought that buying the pink rifle in the outdoor shop in Scottsdale may not have been approved of, my tent mate lent me a pink scarf/shawl to carry with me. So even I wore some pink!!

As we huffed and puffed up the trail, I began to get sad at what we were about to leave behind and tried to breathe in the peace and tranquillity to take along with me. We reached the top and a pool of water, the view stretched down the canyon and beyond and with blue skies to boot, it was pretty idyllic.
Mike sang a song in tribute to Jules which had us all on the verge of tears, another magical moment to add to the many.

We then scrambled up a bit further to another viewpoint, holding onto the rock walls with fingertips, to avoid slipping down ... a proper bit of trail that was!!
We got to a dead end, cut off from the next bit by a pool of water, unless you fancied submerging yourself and swimming through, which none of us did, so we headed back to find the others who had been basking in the sunshine in our absence.
Hiking done!

I walked to the buses heart sinking at the thought of leaving this behind but the inevitable was coming and we got on the buses and headed to Vegas, our last destination of the trip. The only bonus of Vegas was the thought of a shower and a bed, having had neither for 5 days... it would be amazing!

The first sight of Vegas from the motorway and it didnt seem too bad... at a distance it was benign... but the closer you got, the traffic and the noise and the lights began to suck you in, until you were surrounded with no way out! Famous hotels and landmarks appeared, awful in their vulgarity. Stepping out of the buses into the Excalibur hotel... my senses were further assaulted by the noise of the gambling machines, a mass of people and tv's blaring with all the sports. The smell of tobacco and cannabis mingled with the oxygen rich air, a faint smell of sweat and desperation, which emenated from the punters at the tables.

We escaped to our rooms. The shower, when it came washed off the grime from 5 days of being at one with nature though at that moment I would have happily swapped the shower for a few more days of tranquility. In fact I was literally fighting the urge not to hop in a cab, go to the airport and catch the first plane out.... anywhere but here! The juxtaposition between what had come before and the here and now grated in all corners of my brain, so that when we when to dinner, I was close to desperation to escape. 

The feeling did settle throughout the evening as I reminded myself that we weren't here for long... and I began to enjoy myself, celebrating the completion of what turned out to be a reasonably challenging few days. 

Then it was off to the awaiting limos, so big about 15 of us squashed into one. The others loaded up on alchohol but as I dont drink much these days, and I didnt feel like having one, I sat there watching the strip crawl by.

After about 1 hour we were dropped off at the fountains at least the Bellagio and they were pretty spectacular... set to Viva Las Vegas and with lights as well as sound, it was one of the better sights in Vegas. The next few hours were spent wandering back to the hotel and shepherding some extremely drunk people, which took some doing!

I eventually crawled into bed after half one... having watched some friends lose $40 in the space of 15 minutes, with plans to escape tomorrow running round my head, which cross-faded into dreams of Bryce and Zion, and enveloping peace.