The Swimming Otter Gazette

May 5, 2024

Your National Park News!

Welcome to beautiful Zion National Park!

Big Dipper (upside down)

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Our trip to zion

May 2, 2024 in the early morning, our friends came over to our house for our trip down to Zion National Park. Luckily we only live about 4 hours from Zion. Where we live we're not allowed to have any cars on the street overnight so we had to think of a way to keep the cars off the street and also not taking up the whole driveway. We ended up moving some things around in the garage and successfully fit our two miatas end to end.

After getting the cars situated we started driving south. Right when we go onto the freeway to had to listen to Life Is a Highway by Rascal Flats, as it is my traditional start to any road trip.

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Man sits on giant beaver's lap! Don't worry it's not real, experts say

Readers and journalists alike are all aflutter over shocking new claims regarding a man sitting on what appears to be a giant beaver's lap.

Swimming Otter Gazette sent a reporter to the gas station in the town of Beaver UT where this story broke, but the man was long gone. Our reporter does not have enough training or education to be able to tell by himself or to find concrete evidence on whether the beaver was real or not. He did sucessfully interview a couple locals who have lived in Beaver their whole lives. One man, Buck Birchtree, expressed, "I really thought giant beavers were extinct. I really hope there's not any around here." Another woman, who didn't comment on her name said, "I'm not a local, but this seems like a crime against Beaver kind. It's demeaning really. I don't understand why people can't just treat others with respect."

This seems like a crime against Beaver kind.

An expert in SOBBING (School of Beaver Biology InterNational Group) claimed on Z (formerly TreeFeller) that it is in fact not a real beaver, but carved out of wood. Swimming Otter Gazette reached out for further inquiry but recieved no remark by the time of publishing. Was the Beaver real? Was the Beaver carved out of wood by beavers to act as some sort of Beaver Idol? We'll never know.

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Lots of cute baby goats

at zion ponderosa ranch they had a couple different animals which we got to see. The main attractions were the horses which you could rent to go on a guided tour, which we did the 2nd day we were there. But the main animal we got excited to see was the goats. The owners of the animals told us it was okay to go into the goat pen and meet them. Chloe and I loved getting to pet the babies and Chloe took lots and lots of pictures.

Here's me with a baby goat.

Here's just the baby goat.

Chloe with the momma goat.

Aaron's First time horse back riding

Aaron had never been horse back riding before but he has always wanted to his whole life because he loves the wild west. He doesn't want to be an actual cowboy because he likes the comforts of modern life, but riding horses is one of the cool things that cowboys do so he's always wanted to experience that.

The group made reservations before their trip to do an hour long horseback tour around the edge of Zion National Park. When they arrived for their reservation the person that would be teaching everyone and leading the tour was a woman with a vibrant braid of red hair, she told us to call her Jessie like from Toy Story. Before the ride Aaron kept checking with Chloe that the trail that the tour follows doesn't have the group going on the side of a cliff and she assured him that it was mostly flat. She lied.

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May 5, 2024

Your National Park News!

Our trip to zion

Continued from front page.

Not long into the drive someone pointed out that there was a whistling sound that kept changing in pitch. It was from a piece of trim that had come off of the bike rack on the roof so there was a hole that the wind was whistling through. If it was just regular whistling from the car not being insulated well then it wouldn't be annoying and you could drown it out, but this whistling kept changing in pitch so you couldn't get used to it. We ended up just turning the music up louder.

If I recall correctly the only place we stopped at on the way down to Zion was in the town of Beaver at a gas station. That's where this picture of me sitting on the beaver's lap was taken.

The rest of the drive to Zion was pretty uneventful. Just lots of music and trying to ignore the whistling noise coming from the roof rack. When we go to the cabin Chloe and I took the loft bed up a ladder that rolls back and forth, while Rocky and Chip got beds in the basement.

The first night we drove the side by side to Jolly's Glutch and it was dark by the time we got there. My Father in Law was behind us in his truck and had the light bar on so while we were driving offroad bouncing around there was a spooky alien looking light peering through the trees behind us trying to catch up.

Aaron's First time horse back riding

Continued from front page.

Basically the entire horseback tour was right at the edge of a cliff, and Aaron already nervous because riding a horse was a completely new experience but Chloe calmed his nerves and meeting the horse up close and getting to pet it before getting on helped. After everyone mounted their horses the group started off down the trail. There was Jessie in front, two strangers, Aaron, Chloe, Rocky, and Chip on a slow old horse in the back. Chip's horse kept falling behind the pack a little bit so we had to stop a couple times to make sure everyone was close together.

The whole guided tour when on without a hitch, and everyone had a ton of fun! Aaron got used to the rocking of the horse and feeling how steady and confident the horse felt under him, and his nerves went away pretty fast. It was like hiking but better because you get all the views without nearly as much work. And all the while on the back of an amazing creature.

The tour brought us back around to the ranch and there was trees with little berries in them. Everyone started picking them and throwing them at each other, which is very hard while riding on a horse. Once back at the ranch everyone dismounted their hores and said goodbye. We can't wait to go back and ride again.