Chris and I left the office early on Friday for our post-tax season vacation. We headed first to Zion National Park, and camped at a mega-campground right outside the entrance Friday and Saturday. We hiked about 6 miles Saturday on various trails. I really was a little tired from that, so I didn’t do quite as much mileage as I had planned. But both Saturday evening and Sunday morning, I got the honor and absolute pleasure of running in Zion NP. It was great. I ran on the Pa’rus trail (short of 3.5 miles regardless of what the park maps say) with short side trips onto the Watchman trail for some extra mileage.

I have to admit Saturday evening I was a little weary about my run. It was hot. I was tired. But it was a great opportunity to try out my new Nathan handheld water bottle holder…thingy. The first 1/3 of the run was, as expected, really hot. But the upper part of the trail is well-shaded, and by the time I got back to the lower part the sun had just barely dipped below the western cliffs. I passed many walkers, some bikers, and just one other runner. (We gave a head nod and a ‘hey’ as we passed. I believe there was an understanding about how lucky we were to be running in the park).

But the great thing? On the shuttle back to the campground there was a woman with her husband who I could tell was kind of looking at me. The next morning (I did a much more extended version of the trail, starting at the campground and going back past it for a total of about 6.8 miles), I saw the woman and her husband out for a run on the Pa’rus trail! That made me quite happy. I hope she saw me out running and said ‘honey, that’s what we’re doing tomorrow!’

Running in the park was beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous, especially since I picked not-too-hot times to try it. Warning – DO NOT attempt this between the hours of 10AM and 4:30 PM from April to October. You wouldn’t make it.