Spectacular Zion National Park By Bicycle

 

The e-bike craze sweeping America certainly was evident at Zion National Park, where people rented lots of bikes that looked like mini-motorcycles and cargo bikes for little kids to sit in the "back" of the two-wheel vehicle.

I was biking on my wheels using good, ol' leg power to check out the spectacular landscape views on this 90-degree day.

The valley floor is spectacular with walls of rock climbing to a gorgeous clear sky.

My strategy is simple: Arrive after the crushing morning rush around 1 PM, drive into the park to find a parking space just past the valley floor turn and take the bike from the car and start pedaling.

Today I biked the valley floor before turning back and bicycling the switchback road to the tunnel.

By the way, there is a paved trail from the visitors center to the turn where to start the valley floor road that is behind a mechanical arm that buses can pass. The park has a rule that requires bicyclists to stop biking to allow bus drivers to drive their buses past them.

Spring Rite Of Seeing Magenta-Pink Blooms In Desert Is Joyful Part Of Bicycling

 

It's getting into late March but I have not thought about these grenade bursts of neon magenta-pink in the calico desert, the mind-boggling blooms of the beavertail cactus that pop this time of year.

I adore these blooms and this morning after I bicycled the Red Rock Loop outside Las Vegas, I prepared a late-morning stir fry breakfast and told myself it was game on to check for these Mojave Desert plants at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

I checked in at the visitors center and then bicycled along the River Mountains Loop Trail and that's where I saw the explosions of fushcia in the sloping desert land where Lake Mead serves as a vackdrop.

When I left Las Vegas in February 2016 for Vero Beach, Florida, I missed the blooms of these amazing plants (and the opening of T-Mobile-Arena on the Strip.)

And when I returned to start LVSportsBiz.com in June 2017, I missed that year's bloom.

I still remember the jolt of joy I felt when I saw those blooms again in late March 2018 and there was a renewal of this rite Sunday afternoon.

The re-connection to this bloom color and spring rite of passage was more powerful than seeing the Bellagio or the Fremont Street Experience or the Strip again when I returned.

Nature eclipses all and today's doubleheader of bike rides -- the Red Rock Loop and the Rover Mountains Loop Trail/Lake Mead -- was a lovely reset for the week.

You know my saying: nature and bicycling before LVSportsBiz and writing.