After some long, glamorous and sinful nights in Las Vegas, we decided that we had enough of the bright and glooming civilization and so we took our beautiful Berta out for a ride to Zion National Park (Utah, United States - which is in America). Our objection was to hike all the way up the Canyon, set up our tents, and walk down again on the other side the next day.

Luckily we arrived pretty late at the parks backcountry office, so we didn’t have to walk through the midday heat, which is fairly hot, even compared to a Finnish Sauna. Though, we had to run through the late afternoon sun with more then 20kg (most of it water, due to the fact that the only water source on the Canyon was not save to drink) on our backs to get to our planned camp spot before dark. Miraculously we made just before dark without having any casualties.

So lets talk about the darkness, and the things that come with it in Zion National Park: Mountain Lions. So what do you do if you encounter one you may ask? So did we! The true American action hero ranger (who had more guns on his belt then Rambo has ever shot) we talked to and various signs before entering the track had the answers:

1)   Solo hiking is not encouraged.

2)   Never approach a mountain lion.

3)   Do not run. Try to look large and put your arms up.

4)   If a mountain lion approaches, wave your arms, shout, and throw rocks or sticks at it. (My favorite one!)

5)   If attacked, fight back.

Yes, we felt very safe as well after having this information.

Eventually the night was as black as blackest whole and we not even hat the moon to lighten up our little valley on top of Zion NP. In that particular darkness we cooked our two-dollar Ravioli on little cooking stoves, we designed out of some stones, and had a true camper feast while gazing directly into the spectacularly luminous milky way. Perfect! We never had this quiet before in the US and we had the pleasure to enjoy it for a couple of hours till we heart some noise. It could have been anything: a falling leave, a bat, a little bird, or even a rabbit but it sounded like a giant jungle cat sneaking up on us.

As you might have guessed, we armored ourselves with sticks and stones and were sleeping everything but tight while listening to ants carrying microscopic grain of sands into their borrow and imagining them as enormous monsters flashing their gigantic teeth just above our tent ceiling.

We survived the night.

You might have guessed that as well.

The walk down the Canyon was a marvelous beauty of agony and scenery you could not imagine to see. We truly felt unique having the pleasure to be here. Long drop off, sandy cliffs, shady valleys and colorful canyons – and we were the only ones there.

If you are a fat, rich American you can buy anything you want in Las Vegas to get yourself excited, but here, in this part of wild nature everyone has to work hard to do something that special and beautiful. For the usual fat and rich American Zion National Park would have been their final destination.

With a big grin on my face and my whole body aching from the long hike down I will close this post. Come here and make memories yourself!