Meat Week Part I: Stoking the Fire

By:  K_C
June 29, 2011


Eating enormous chorizo breakfast burritos seemed like the logical way to start a week long, 1300 mile trip across Southern Utah. After piling into Porter’s white Toyota Tacoma, affectionately named ‘The Chicken Taco,’ I realized there was more meat in that truck than in a fist-pumping dance club at the Jersey Shore. I mean, just look at these guys:
Porter and Greg

We barely got out of Salt Lake City before the sounds started. Flatulence became another sound of the road, like the wind whipping up through canyons, rocks from the road bouncing off the side of the truck, snow falling gently on to the ground…wait what? SNOW? One would assume Southern Utah would be 90 degrees F and sunny in late June, but this is the FIS crew, and things tend to go a little haywire on our trips.
Our first stop was a cold one at Cedar Breaks National Monument (10,500 ft elevation)
Pic of the snow

Combined with the snow that was left over from the winter, it made us wonder if you could ski here… oh… wait a second.
more snow at Cedar Breaks

In contrast, just down the road, we were met by much warmer temps, and a beautiful waterfall that drains UNDERGROUND Lake Navajo. (Neat!)
Cascade Falls Panorama

We couldn’t pass a watering hole without taking a little dunk.
a head dunk in Cascade Falls

We then hit the road to find a campsite for the night where I witnessed the beautiful bond between man, fire and pork. Greg gets downright giddy at cooking over an open fire (yes, that’s G’s excited face):
Greg cooking pork

What gets me giddy? Blasting ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ by the Beatles as we enter Zion National Park on the cusp of an awesome day of hiking in the desert. The last mile of the Angel’s Landing hike was steep and exposed – exciting and breath-taking in other words.
The view of Angel's Landing

Views at the top can be described in the same way.
View from the top of Angel's Landing

At the end of the hike we cooled off in a trickle of water that filled a nice pool a bit outside the park.
a trickle of water worth swimming in near Zion

Continue Reading: 1 2 3 4 5 Next »

Read about the author:   K_C
Enjoy this TR? Read another: TR: Golden Hour Rock Climbing in the PNW

Related Stuff:

  1. Meat Week Part II: Grilling the Grillables
  2. TR: Meat Week Part I
  3. TR: Meat Weak Part II
  4. HIKE WEEK! Carried (Away) Up the Trap Dike
  5. Paradise Planet in the Beehive State
  6. Dust on Crust

7 Comments

  1. Bill
    wrote on June 29th, 2011 at 9:30 pm  
    1

    Nice Stuff team, like i has said a thousand times, so envious i love southern utah northern AZ!

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
  2. Harvey44
    wrote on June 29th, 2011 at 10:04 pm  
    2

    KC … beautiful awesome photos and great report. Man those tight spaces would flip me out, did you ever get spooked being in there?

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • K_C
      wrote on June 30th, 2011 at 9:29 am  
      3

      Nope, tight spaces were not a problem. I actually thought I had a slight advantage over the boys for once.

  3. Lionel Hutz
    wrote on June 29th, 2011 at 10:08 pm  
    4

    Did you happen to find James Franco’s arm in one of those canyons?

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
    • K_C
      wrote on June 30th, 2011 at 9:21 am  
      5

      Actually, I was hoping to find James Franco – the whole person. We needed more guys on this trip.

    • Greg
      wrote on July 1st, 2011 at 10:02 am  
      6

      lol

  4. christian
    wrote on June 29th, 2011 at 10:16 pm  
    7

    righteous writeup connors

    Respond to this comment/comment thread
Please consider visiting our sponsors.

Leave a Reply

(no login required)

Check for email notifications of new comments (valid email required)        

Stay in touch: Click here to follow us on Twitter. Click here to subscribe for updates to be delivered via RSS. Click here to become a fan on Facebook. Click here to read and share real time weather observations. Learn more over at the account. It's awesome. We promise!