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And what a scene it is. We had a tasty and expensive sushi dinner in Caesar's Palace and then walked through the even more posh Bellagio. Slots, gaming tables and bars ruled the floor. Time of day or night seemed quite unimportant.

In the morning we headed out to REI to get some camping fuel. Along the way we asked some folks for breakfast spots and kept getting the same answer. Our choices it appeared boiled down to a casino buffet or Denny's. We opted for a bagel at a coffeeshop and got on the road. We excitedly realized that we'd have time to fit in a day hike and Zion National Park was right on the way. Scott had done the Angel's Landing hike many times and wanted to go back. I'd been to Zion before but never made it up Angel's Landing so was excited for the chance to do so. Once we started up the trail we quickly forgot about everything back at home and just soaked up the surroundings of this majestic place. Thunderstorms almost kept us from reaching the top but we made it during a break in the weather.

We didn't reach our campsite at the White House trailhead until near 11pm and it was rainy and windy so we just pitched the tent and went to bed. We woke up to clearing skies and a beautiful desert scene. We stashed some running shoes and water since we were planning to run back to our car at the end and then drove to the Buckskin Gulch trailhead. We started out following a dry wash through the desert, a few cows stood about. Soon the wash entered a narrow canyon that deepened as we hiked through. Once the canyon narrowed the bed filled with a good run of water that we often had to wade through. The bottom was a very slick wet mud. It was a magical day of hiking this canyon that went on and on. We saw no one else. A few times we had to hoist our packs above our heads and wade through chest deep water. We hurried on after that trying to stay warm. After 16 miles or so we reached the confluence with the Paria canyon and our resting spot for the night. After cooking a meal we lay our bags on a sandy shelf above the river and fell asleep with the stars in the sky above us framed by the high canyon walls.

In the morning we hiked out the Paria canyon which is wider than Buckskin Gulch. We waded through the Paria river but it never got more than knee high. On this route we ran into a fair number of fellow hikers many of whom had planned to hike Buckskin but cancelled due to conditions. After we reached White House trailhead we collected our running gear, stashed the packs, and set out on an 11.5 mile run back to the car. We arrived back at the car totally spent and ready to turn on the AC and cruise through the southwest desert listening to the iPod back to Vegas.

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Also visit Scott's album.