Visiting Zion National Park While Autistic

Because I am very smart, it only took me ten years to realize that Zion National Park is a mere three-hour drive from Las Vegas, where we often stay with family. For us, that's day-trippable. I wasn't sure if Zion would be an ideal place for our team, but as last week was Leo's Spring Break, we were looking for new adventures, and our friend and fellow road-tripper Dr. Deb Karhson was game, we decided to see if Zion was our kind of place.

Oh yes, it was.

First of all, we are all about Transportation Days. If we can spend a day riding buses, trains, subways, ferries, boats, trams, and/or cable cars, that is a day in which everybody wins. And Utah's town of Springfield, AKA the gateway to Zion NP, has a clean, efficient, free shuttle bus service. Yes! We won! (Parking in Springfield was not free, but it was not exorbitant either.)

[image: Deb Karhson, me, and Leo riding the free shuttle bus
from the town of Springfield to the Zion park entrance.]

Another reason we were heading to Zion is that it is in fact a National Park. And people with disabilities can get life-long free Access Passes to National Parks. And I thought Leo should have an Access Pass. So I brought all his documentation—birth certificate, passport, diagnosis paperwork, most recent IEP, etc., to prove that yes in fact, our dude is who he says he is and yes, he is disabled.

Turns out the ranger believed Leo without any of that, and just needed him to sign his name (and waited without comment or prompting during that process, which for our dude takes as long as it takes). OK then! Now Leo (and anyone who comes with Leo) can get into any national park, and can even get the car that Leo rides in, into those national parks. I think the Access Pass is an excellent program and I am grateful for it.

We then headed to the next part of our excellent day, the Zion NP free shuttle, which takes visitors to nine different parts of the canyon, with on/off privileges at every stop. Except, d'oh:

[image: Leo next to a very long line of people waiting to board the
Zion National Park free shuttle bus.]

We were there on the Friday before Easter Sunday, which turned out to be a Really Busy Day. The rangers said they had Summer attendance but Spring staffing and shuttles, so we ended up having to wait for 30 minutes to board the bus. Thankfully, waiting for a bus is a perfectly acceptable way to spend one's time, according to the teenager in our group. Whew! 

We then rode up and down the canyon, possibly more than once. We got off the bus at Zion Lodge and poked around a bit, but we'll need to go back again to get our usual hiking on—the crowds made the trails inaccessible to our party, for various sensory reasons. The crowds also made for waits at many of the shuttle stops, which could have been an issue if we had had a crisis and needed to board right away, as the park has no priority boarding policy for people who have a hard time with lines. I look forward to heading back on a less-bustling day.

But, damn, Zion was so beautiful. The temperature was warm but not intolerable, flowers were blooming everywhere, and the skies were as blue as any I've seen. I did not even try to capture that beauty, as it is staggering on a scale incomprehensible to my puny camera phone. Let's just say that there's a reason there are windows in ceilings of the buses. You should see Zion yourself if you can, or watch a dedicated video.

[image: Leo from behind, looking down the Virgin river, from a bridge.]

Also note that there were lots of places to rest and chill, even with the crowds. Benches and lawns and more. This is important for our crew, which requires downtime. Also important: Water fountains and spouts with tasty, clean Zion spring water everywhere. Don't forget to bring your reusable water bottle!

[image: Leo and me lounging on the lawn in front of the Zion lodge.]

And finally, we were glad to have Deb along with us. I think sometimes Leo gets bored of me, as teenage boys tend to do with their mothers, plus Deb is the least boring person on earth and Leo loves her (as do I). Also Deb says she misses her brother, who lives in another state, and who is a lot like Leo. Then there's that Leo's dad doesn't like the two of us traveling by ourselves, but there aren't a lot of people who think traveling with us for a few days is a vacation. So, more gratitude on my part. Thanks, Deb!

[image: Leo and Deb on the grass at Zion Lodge, seen in
profile. Deb is cupping Leo's cheeks and he is smiling
at her.]

If you or your family member are autistic and/or disabled, and you've been to Zion, I'd be interested to hear about your experience. For now, I can report that we had a wonderful time, and I am raring to return.

Oh Yeah: 1400 Mile Autism Family Road Trip in 60 Hours!

Can a family like ours roadtrip from San Francisco to Portland and back again in 60 hours? Of course. But should we drive 1400 miles in under three days? Under the right circumstances -- and for the right people -- absolutely.

Traveling as a family hasn't always been reasonable for us. We had a long stretch in which Leo didn't do more than the occasional day trip, so unimpressed was he with the demands of going off-routine. But he's grown, he's matured, and he's now become the most patient and intrepid traveler of our group, enjoying the adventure of seeing new scenery roll by.

And SF to PDX, that is a scenic drive. Especially on Labor Day Weekend, with some of the best weather we've seen all year. And especially if you take the Redwoods route along 101.  Because then you can drive through trees!

The drive-through tree at Myer's Flat may look shredded, but I assure you it is very much alive.

This is what the inside of the tree looked like through our sunroof. You can see some of its greenery out the top.

And this is what the drive-through tree looked like through our window! You can't necessarily tell in the photo, but Leo is laughing his ass off at seeing the inside of a tree through the car window. I, on the other hand, am not laughing because the clearance on either side was less than 3 inches (finally, my background maneuvering big pickup trucks over tricky overgrown Oregon logging roads paid off!).

We enjoyed the various redwood structures, including playhouses built inside giant stumps.

But by far my favorite redwood activity is wandering among the giants themselves. The kids warmed our hearts with comments about being on the forest moon of Endor. And we saw two families much like ours who appreciated big open path-based spaces for wandering and wondering.

We also marveled at the undersides of fallen stumps, so those recent like sea creature firework explosions.

They're just so damn big! The giant below was nearly 400 feet tall when it fell in the '90s.

Most every part of California north of Healdsburg made us want to stop and get to know it better, more so as an acquaintance recently took his family-like-ours camping along the very same coast, and highly recommended it. We need to come back, spend a week or so -- or more -- out in the redwoods and the isolated coastal areas where a bit of happy whooping and the occasional yowl of NO from our boy won't bother other campers. But we had to get to Roseburg, OR by the first night's end. So, onward we drove. Though we did celebrate hitting the state border.

We went to Portland to celebrate a friend's milestone. And we knew they would be celebrating with a rambunctious, kid-filled party. So we asked around if anyone would want to come with us to help make sure Leo's needs were met. And guess who volunteered? My wonderful co-editor at TPGA, Kassiane. She and Leo (and the whole family) got on just ... so well. Makes me sniff tearfully, in thinking how rare and precious it is for us to hang with folks where everything (geekitude and autism) is instantly grokked. Do you know how many people will keep talking with Mali about her favorite imaginary precious metal/gem cupcakes and their variety of possible toppings after the first five minutes? Damn few.

I think Leo & Kassiane liked each other, too. (Thanks so much for being awesome, K.)

Our hosts, some of our very most favorite people on the whole planet, threw a hell of a party. It aches to think how rarely we get to see them, how much we love them -- that is why the trip needed to happen. And their house was so amazing to me -- it's such an adult's house. Everything tidy, maintained, and lovingly geekified (they're both scientists). Their kid's room overflowing with Lego, books, and specimens (he's his parents' child), but ordered. Everything so distanced from Martha Stewart (bah) but so close to my mind's eye's 'real' house. Good to have goals, good to see people living the domestic dream. (I have been pulling the slo-mo version of the Augean stables on our house ever since.)

The kids wanted to stay forever, in that house of bunnies and turtles and bonsai trees and jumpy pool slides and a tree swing. I did too. Unfortunately Leo fell off the swing and scraped the side of his face. Since it's hard for him to leave scabs alone, it's still healing. But we've found he picks it less if we stop telling him not to pick at it, poor guy. And I am once again grateful that Leo is a healthy, not-terribly-accident-prone kid, because I don't like thinking about the decisions we'd encounter should he be unable to comply with treatment and recovery from a serious injury or illness.

We turned around and headed back south right after the party, so we wouldn't have to do PDX -> SF in a single day. We stayed in Eugene, which always seems such a pleasant place to me. Our hotel was right alongside the Willamette's inland delta, which would normally have us all out birding -- but alas, our breakneck schedule. NEXT TIME.

Leo is a fan of hotels, too. And newly invested in piloting roller bags, which is A-OK with me. One of his former OTs remarked on Facebook that this is a good way to provide proprioceptive input, so hey.

The schedule stomped the kids pretty hard, good sports though they were.

We took the (mostly boring) I-5 route back, for expediency purposes. It was good to say hi to Mt. Shasta up close after so many years, and we chuckled at Ashland -- such a doppleganger for Sebastopol (but all we had to do to find a good coffee & sandwich shop was to stop randomly along the main drag, so, not complaining).

When things got truly flat and dull south of Redding, Iz livened matters up by defying orders and letting Mali have her first dose of caffeine. Sigh. Thankfully our youngest put her energy into READING REALLY FAST instead of activities requiring social reciprocity, as we were all well and truly burnt by then.

Does this mean our trip was easy? No. This was an exhilarating but exhausting blue moon-worthy excursion (note blue moon on the eve of our trip). My husband is a saint for coming along -- he does not share my fondness for road trips of intensest intensity, but he couldn't pass up the chance to see our friends, or the Northern California redwood & coastal scenery. 

We also had the complication that Leo is currently In a Mood regarding his little sister, and cannot sit next to her in the car. So Leo got the shotgun seat, while the non-driving parent sat in the back. With this accommodation, and as long as we were mindful to keep the two kids non-adjacent at all times, things went smoothly.

Would I do it again, given the wonderful scenery and friends (and family)? Oh yes. Gratefully.

We Worship the Familiar

Here is one way Leo survived our holiday road trip: By clinging to the familiar. Through his increasing awareness that, no matter where we go, there will always be things he likes to do (*cough* iPad *cough*), food he likes to eat, and people he likes to see. It helps that we drove the family truckster, which meant that his favorite seat, family, music, books, and other nesting materials came along, too. Other examples of the emerging familiar:

We drove through traffic-stopping rain- and hailstorms on I-15 south of Las Vegas. As we approached Primm, Nevada (formerly Stateline, and a fine town with an interesting history), the flooded desert floor reflected lights from the casinos, malls, and hotels and evoked the bath house from Spirited Away. You'd better believe Leo and our whole family liked that. Quite comforting.

We stopped in Primm and had our very first full-family mall experience at Las Vegas Outlets (we usually avoid malls: I loathe them, Seymour's not a huge fan, Leo and Mali are indifferent, though Iz is desperate). We secured some last minute and quite reasonable holiday gifts, then hit the food court -- where Leelo nommed an entire spinach stromboli! The not-insubstantial serving of greens was encased in pizza dough, and were transformed into the familiar. We just might balance our boy's diet through food on hand rather than with supplements and smoothies!

Nothing beats a swimming an opportunity for our boy (getting his goggles on, with his dad). Can you see The Strip in the background? We are so grateful to Seymour's parents for choosing a house with a pool.

Our stay in Las Vegas was brief but, again, a success. Leo has gotten used to the idea that his beloved grandparents' "new" (as of 2007) house is where they live, and now that welcoming, wonderful home has become the familiar as well. And whenever he became dissatisfied with our arrangements in Phoenix, it was "Grammie and Vavo's house?" that he would request, not our own "New house?"

I am looking forward to our next road trip -- and hope that we can eventually take these children to Yellowstone. That is my ultimate family road trip destination.

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Updates from the past week:

Of course I wrote about Andrew Wakefield's fraud, at BlogHer. He is a deluded and dangerous man, and my heart goes out to the families who still can't find solutions to their children's health crises, and so have latched onto the man's lies. Liz Ditz compiled her standard excellent roundup of articles and responses, but if you want to get to the meat of the matter quickly, I'd read Wakefield's Wake, Part 1: Media should help undo damage from vaccine-autism hoax, the BMJ's essential How the Vaccine Crisis Was Meant to Make Money,  and, to round out your understanding of how irrelevant the autism/vaccine argument has become, Why the increase? (No, It's Not the Vaccines) from Stanford Magazine's excellent recent autism series.

I wrote another recent piece for BlogHer, titled Get Over Yourself (this post was supposed to be my 2011 year-opener, but Wakefield's latest public shaming took precedence):

I'm not greeting the new year with resolutions; I'm greeting it with a wish: I want you to get over yourself. Scratch that: I want you to give yourself permission to get over yourself. To put your defensiveness, anxiety, and hesitation aside, so you can engage more honestly and productively with the world around you, and we can all be happier.

Our engagements may not always succeed, our minds may not always meet; but we should always try.

On Tuesday I was interviewed about Blogging! along with NerdyAppleBottom, on Kansas City's NPR station, KCUR.org, as part of the news magazine Central Standard. NerdyAppleBottom's entertaining interview regarding her unexpectedly viral post My Son Is Gay is the first part, I come in at the :40 mark to discuss how blogging has affected my life -- specifically, how all you wonderful positive role models have taught me to stop taking the negative approach of "fighting autism," and the positive approach of supporting my son. Thank you.

One of my paid jobs is reviewing blogs. I have a large weekly rotation of sites, and while I don't identify with the interests of all of the writers (euphemism alert), some of the blogs are a distinct pleasure to read every week. I was shocked to read that one of my favorite bloggers, Ashleigh Burroughs, was shot alongside Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. I adore Ashleigh's humorous, no-nonsense, empathetic approach to life, politics, and her own history. If you have a moment, please leave a supportive comment.

And finally, breaking news: It took the hot social media trends of 2008 almost two years to wear me down but: I now have a public Facebook page. Check it out, baby.

Leo the Champion Roadtripper

We just returned from a near-two-week road trip through Hanford CA, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Joshua Tree NP, and Palm Springs -- arriving home last night at 2 AM. I was worried worried worried about this trip and how it would affect our boy, as documented thoroughly at BlogHer.

Turns out Leo is a world-champion roadtripper. The best possible sport, much better than his Bickerson sisters. If you follow me on Twitter you already know that our holiday peregrinations weren't all sandstone and roses -- but the roadtrip segments were such a delight that we're thinking this might be an ideal vacation mode for our family.

Meanwhile the kids finally opened the presents under their own Christmas tree this morning, the lucky little bandits. And even though they received some teeth-gritting gifts, I am also secretly pleased that Jennyalice and my sister-in-law Bree love my children more than they fear my wrath.

Happy 2011, all. Hope your holidays were merry and bright and reasonably successful as well.