Thinking Allowed: Eye on Zion

When Tamar's parents kindly offered to spend four days indulging Aurora, Sophia and Tova in L.A., we eagerly threw Zadie into the backseat and drove seven hours to some of the world's most beautiful rocks: Bryce Canyon, Zion, and Valley of Fire in Utah and Nevada. We had a wondrous time, hiking 13 trails which filled our minds with soaring granite slabs, squat redrock beehives, swollen matcha-green rivers and snow-flanked orange hoodoos.

It was a bit funny traveling with a single child. We got to relive the new-parent experience of maudlin strangers grabbing you by the arm and emotionally saying, "Your life just changed...forever!" or "It will get better...I promise!" It's a bit awkward to explain that no, you've just foisted your other three girls off on their obliging grandparents, so we'd mostly just blush and murmur something vague. Zadie is an exemplary hiking companion: she can sleep for miles in the wrap, often up to five hours. She was frustrated, though, by having to sleep in an oversized red beret (which continually slid down over her eyes, not to mention made her look exactly like a dictator) in below-freezing weather in a tent.

The National Parks were in a tizzy as usual, especially Zion. America's great Parks have gotten much busier in recent years: campsites are booked out six months in advance (really, who plans that far ahead??) and popular trails are streaming with tourists. And 'tourists' is unfortunately the word: lumbering out of their 40' RVs to ride the shuttle bus back and forth, briefly disembarking to pose for dozens of selfies in front of canyon views before "getting a beer and watching the game". Our campsite was full, yet empty: nearly everyone was shut up in their RV watching TV, while Nevada's stars shone down on unused fire pits and picnic tables. We are nonetheless impressed, though, that lifetime NP passes are only $10 for seniors - this country has enough lovely trails to fill years of happy retirement.

Anyway, none of this detracted in the least from the stunning beauty of Zion, Bryce and Valley of Fires. There can't be many lovelier places on the planet. We first visited Bryce: a remote canyon of the deepest red, with snow-covered pillars and columns jutting up as far as the eye can see. We also met up with Bert and Marta, two old friends from the American Discovery Trail who put us up on their farm in Utah's outback ten years ago - it was so wonderful to see them again and just as if no time had passed at all! Zion NP gave us cricks in the neck from gawking up at the massive looming canyon walls; the highlight was surely Angels Landing, a relentless climb up switchbacks to a perfect view of the canyon, and to an insanely dangerous rock climb, where a wobbly chain (which was also numbingly cold) and two-inch ledge were all that kept Jakob from a sheer 1,000-foot drop into Refrigerator Canyon. He didn't make it to the top, but neither is he dead like all the others, so let's call it even. On the return drive, we spent half a day exploring the Road Runner-esque redrock fantasies of Valley of the Fire: Tamar got to run 10km down a wash, past purple, maroon and green striped boulders, and through a slot canyon to an abandoned film site (Westerns and Star Trek alike are filmed here, to give you an idea of the scenery)

Friday we leave for a camping trip in Joshua Tree (our fifth National Park this trip, not bad America!) then on to British Columbia after celebrating Passover with family here in L.A.