up canyon

Oh, the places you'll go.

This was taken shortly after an exchange with a young traveler from outside the US.

Noticing that this genius was scratching his initials into the sandstone on top angel’s landing, the exchange went something like this:

Friend: “Come on, that’s totally lame.”

Idiot: “What, are you going to report me to the park rangers? Here, here’s my photo id so you can either take it and or photograph and bring it to them.”

Me: “That’s not the point. The point is this is a National Park and you don’t do things like that here, it’s a matter of respect.”

Idiot: “Well, that’s your opinion.”

By this point, the entire crowd on top of Angel’s Landing was listening. I, being older and of course wiser, saw this an opportunity to bring someone to my side of thinking, but the junior high student in me couldn’t resist:

“Well, my opinion is that you’re a douche bag.”

He stopped.

To this day, I can’t understand why anyone would travel over the international date line, head to some exceedingly obscure spot in Utah, hike to the top of this sandstone pedestal that requires one to cling to chains and act like spiderman, only to scribble your initials into the rock…

Some other images from the way down.