Visit our National Parks and See the World

Our ongoing tour has recently alighted into southern Utah for some of the famous National Parks in this area, specifically Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park. Of course, the natural sights here are astonishing almost to the point of being un-photographical (at least by amateurs).

But that isn't what has surprised me the most. What has surprised me the most is the huge variety of foreign languages I hear being spoken. In Bryce, we saw several tour buses, mostly of Asian (my ear thought Japanese) tourists. It's a stereotype, I know, but it arose from somewhere real, evidently. As our family was doing the Navajo Trail hike (which we extended into a longer hike because the the end of the trail loop was closed without being marked, tsk tsk), we were accompanied along the journey by a group of about 20 Japanese women, with a Japanese man as the group leader. Sure, they took pictures; so did we. What was astonishing was the vigor of the group. In the end, climbing back up the canyon wall was a somewhat harrowing experience for me personally (heights not being my thing at the best of times), but it was ameliorated by our company. Was I inspired by the 75 year old Japanese women who I could barely keep up with -- or was I shamed? Doesn't really matter; motivation was found when needed.

In Zion we got around to a lot more sights and a variety of shorter hikes. That, combined with the useful shuttle buses required for visiting the main canyon area, gave us greater exposure to other visitors than Bryce. The effect in languages heard was even more pronounced (haha): lots of German speakers, some Chinese, Japanese, and quite a few Scandinavian speakers (despite my Old Norse, my ear isn't clever enough to distinguish Swedish from Norwegian or Danish; though my guess is that most of these folks were Swedish), and a few French and British folks.

Let's be clear about this: my estimate is that more than 50% of the visitors were not from the USA. I was astonished. For grins, on the way back on the last shuttle bus I decided it was time for my daily lesson in "La Marseillaise". Gwen, the Daughter, learned it last year in her French immersion class, and I've been trying to pick it up under her tutelage. She's got the teaching knack down pretty well, and is one tough cookie. ("Dad, you almost got it right, just these 3 syllables were wrong....") During the ride, I think I finally mastered the last bits of the second line.

Anyways, I felt comfortable doing this because of the variety of tongues being spoken all around me. I thought we wouldn't even be noticed. In this I was incorrect, however, as the driver noted jovially after a little while (on the loudspeaker no less), "You know, your entertainment won't reduce your fare." (Which is $0 btw.) To which I replied: "But we accept tips!" His response: "When I say that, everyone usually heads for the door!"

Anyways, why Zion, and Bryce? I did not notice many visitors from overseas at Glacier National Park (in fact, I don't remember any up there), and scant few in the Yellowstone / Teton National Park areas. I suppose that they are more remote, and are less easily toured (being so BIG), than Zion and Bryce. And perhaps the closeness of Zion and Bryce to other parks (Grand Canyon, Canyonlands, Aztec ruins, and perhaps Las Vegas) may make for an attractive 2 week vacation package from abroad?

We'll see if the trend continues at the Grand Canyon. In the meantime, if you want a cultural experience, why travel abroad? Just go visit Bryce and Zion!