The final taste of freedom

 As our previous outings resulted in hasty retreats through snow storms we decided that we should head south to warmer climes.  We had previously spent a couple of days in Zion on our way north and had scouted a backpack trip that we wanted to do, so we decided that this would be a perfect time to do it.  We got a hiking permit and set up a shuttle to take us to our trail head the following day.  We settled into a desert camp and complained constantly about how damn hot it was.  The sun was blazing with temps in the low 90s and, as we were pasty white from our time up north, a bit unforgiving.  We met our shuttle at the visitors center and were soon sorting out our packs at the Lee Pass trail head.  We hiked in a bit over 7 miles to our camp in La Verkin Canyon.  The colors in the high country were still nice, especially the bright red vine maples.  The following day we took it easy and spent the day hiking around enjoying the fall colors and red cliffs.   

We then hiked through Hop Valley to Wildcat Canyon for our third night camping.  We passed several other parties-who had the same idea as us for enjoying the falls colors-during our hike.  It turned out that all of our previous backpacking paid off as we found only one camp in Wildcat Canyon.  We did feel a bit guilty as the other two parties were stumbling around trying to find a flat area in near darkness, but that feeling faded as we sipped our hot chocolate.  Our second to last, or if you prefer to sound snazzy-penultimate, day of hiking was fantastic as we traversed along the tops of the canyon rims.  Arriving at camp we noticed that we had nearly consumed our water supplies and so we decided that we might as well drink the rest and head out for the nearby spring.  An hour of thirsty walking later we both agreed that we might not have studied the map as well as we should have.  After returning from our water quest we enjoyed a great sun set overlooking Zion Canyon.  It was pretty strange to hike down into Zion Valley and all the tourist after five days backpacking.  On the way down we dropped out packs off and climbed up to Angles Landing

 We only had a few days left before we had to be back to Flagstaff and decided to enjoy some more fall colors on the north rim of the Grand Canyon.  After stopping at Jacob lake for some cookies and a milk shake, we drove out to Parissawampitts (no idea on how to pronounce it) point and camped right on the rim.  We spent the next day hiking the Rainbow Rim trail; we had great views of the canyon and trees were still holding their color in the dales.  Heading back to Flagstaff the following day the reality of having to return to work and real life started to set in - bummer.