The Honolulu Advertiser from Honolulu, Hawaii • 65

The Honolulu Advertiser ED KENNEDY Hunting for rattlesnakes: Sunday, December 7, 1997 Travel Writer: Ed Kennedy, 525-8023 Only once UTAH Elololiolo nn r.ioVYt.N k.mn tJ; hi) Bob Cross Knight-RidderTribune ii In Bryce Canyon National Park, the rock formations are like city walls from some lost civilization; the characteristic weatherbeaten forms are called "hoodoos." Three stark and surprising national parks await beyond the Grand Canyon I have only hunted for rattlesnakes once. It was in a little West Texas town called Sweetwater. I had gone down there to attend what was billed as the World's Largest Rattlesnake Roundup. What it involved, basically, was a bunch of good ol' boys going out at the crack of dawn and scaring up dia-mondback rattlers, which they caught and brought back to town. Then they'd kill them, skin them, fry them and serve them up with large helpings of french fries and ketchup to the happy crowds that i thronged the town for the cel-' ebration.

It was a Texas-style Chamber of Commerce kind of thing. "Good catch so far," said a big man walking up to me as I drove up. He offered his hand. "Call me Red," he said. He was a snake hunter.

His buddy, named Lome, came over and introduced himself. 1 They'd been designated by the organizers to take me on a snake hunt. "Nothing to it," said Red, handing me a gunnysack and a long, forked stick with a loop of wire attached near the end. "All you do when we see one, is pin 'em with this fork, then slip that wire loop around 'em and and drop 'em -in the sack." And so we piled into Red's old Ford pickup and drove out of town a few miles until we came upon an abandoned 5 ranchhouse out in a "There's a nest of snakes under this house," said Red. "This'll be a cinch.

All we a have to do is crawl under and get 'em." For some reason, which I've never been able to fathom, I volunteered to be the first, one to look under the I crawled through the little access hole in the house's foundation and snapped ori 'i the flashlight. I couldn't see anything but dirt and spider-webs. So I began to inch forward on my bellyC I was doing OK until my flashlight went banged it against the dusty ground but it was dead. It was pitch-dark. This made me stop and think.

It occured to me that here I was, in a crawl space no more than two feet high, 15 feet away from the access hole, in total darkness, and there was supposed to be a nest of dia mondback rattlesnakes directly in front of me. I decided that perhaps I had made a poor decision in volunteering so readily. And then, something happened which I might characterize as one of the defining moments of my life. From somewhere in the darkness of me, something hissed. It is somewhat of an understatement to say this galvanized me to action.

With a lurch, I twisted around and scrambled toward the access hole. Behind me, I could hear something stirring. I began yelling, but there was nothing Red or Lome could do. I reached the hole to the outside just as something hit me from behind. As I popped through the hole into the sunlight, the most ungodly smell I've ever experienced began to engulf me.

"Phew-eeee!" yelled my two companions. Just then from out of the hole emerged the biggest, angriest, smelliest, meanest mother skunk I've ever seen. She slid to a halt, took aim at Red and Lome and let go with a perfectly aimed stream of pure stench. She got both of them. By then all three of us were running for our lives (not to mention our noses), shedding clothes as we went.

We never saw a snake. And needless to say, the comments the crowd made when we arrived back in town are probably best left to the imagination. As I said, it was my one and only time rattlesnake hunting. It might not come as a surprise to learn that I have had very little desire to do so since. I think once is enough, Don't you? Ed Kennedy writes for the Travel and Religion sections of Tv wH- VW Colorado Nevada Mlles By Sean Jamieson Knight-Riclder News Service NORTH RIM, Grand Canyon National Park you'll know you're overdosing on the' scenery put here when you have to speed past the merely spectacular to save time for the truly awesoine.

The Grand Canyon is the marquee attraction on a drive through southern Utah and northern Arizona. But, at the risk of blaspheming, isn't even the highlight of a tour of national parks in this remote part of the country. Heading to and from a visit to the canyon's North Rim, you can also take in two of Utah's best-known national parks and the most beautiful national park -you've never heard of.r With Las Vegas International Airport as' the starting point, a trip could be done in a week to 10 days. You can easily put 1,500 miles on a rental car in that time, but the itinerary and pace of the trip depend on your fondness for side trips, hikes, lying around, and long but fantastically scenic car rides. Don't be alarmed by the miles.

High speed limits, light traffic and few towns to slow down for mean you can cover a lot of ground in a few hours. And unlike, say, a trip to Myrtle Beach, the drive is part of the destination. The scenery is so unexpected, so startling, that you can miss the incongruities created in the rush to cater to us, the visitors. You pass cars hauling boats to Lake Powell through a desert where no one can live because there's no water. You can hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, use the pay phone there, be served a steak dinner and go to sleep in an air-conditioned cabin.

Federal Express delivers to the lodge at Zion National Park. The German flag is displayed more prominently than the Stars and Stripes at the Apache Gift Shop near Virgin, Utah. Sure, there's plenty of civilization, but there's also plenty of peace and quiet and clear blue sky. So quiet that when a passenger jet passes five miles above you, you can hear it. So clear that with a decent pair of binoculars you can read the logo on the tail.

Zion National Park Utah's Zion National Park is about 175 miles north of Las Vegas. The main attraction is a long canyon surrounded by to peaks. But first, a revelation about national parks. See Utah, Page F2 Zeke Wiggle8worttV Knight Ridder Tribune The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument is a less developed area of true away-from-it-all wilderness. GOING VEGAS Caesars Palace is in finishing stages on its new tower 77i information is supplied by Anthony Curtis and Deke Castleman, editors of the Las Vegas Advisor.

Caesars Palace is in the finishing stages of its new $650 million expansion and renovation, the focal point of which is the new Palace Tower. The tower has 1,134 rooms, ranging from 550 to 750 square feet, with spacious nine-foot ceilings. The tower also houses 110,000 square feet of ballroom space and a half-dozen new shops in the Appian Way. Opening in the spring will be a gan with the Dunes in 1993, and was followed by the Landmark in 1995 (in conjunction with filming of the movie "Mars the Sands in 1996 (in conjunction with filming of "Con the Hacienda in 1996, and now the Aladdin. From Anthony Curtis' Las Vegas Advisor monthly newsletter: October issue $5, includes first-class postage.

To order, call 1-800-244-2224. Send questions for the Advisor to lvainflnet or write to 3687 S. Procyon Las Vegas, NV 89103. square-foot spa on the second floor of the Palace Tower and a 4.5-acre Garden of the Gods pool area. SpaceQuesf The Las Vegas Hilton has opened its new $30 million SpaceQuest casino.

It's the most visually extravagant and imaginative casino in town, with futuristic architecture and simulated space scenes over-: head. Soothing spacey music is interrupted by periodic PA announcements such as "Paging H.G. Wells." All the gambling devices have some sort of hightech twist. The slots, for example, are activated when you pass your finger through a light beam. The accompanying interactive attraction, "Star Trek: The Experience," is now scheduled for a Jan.

4 debut. New name: Boomtown, three miles south of the Strip on 1-15, has officially changed its name to the Silverton. The name change is part of a bigger move to market the casino to a younger crowd. Dark days: During the holidays, Las Vegas showrooms often close down for extended periods (it's called "going The following shaws.are scheduled to be dark in December: Debbie Reynolds Show, 11-12 and 24-26; Kenny Kerr Show, 8- 15 and 22-31; Harrah's, Spellbound, 14-24; MGM Grand, EFX, 14-22 and 28-29; Mirage, Siegfried Roy, until 29th; Monte Carlo, Lance Burton, until 25th; New York-New York, Madhattan, until 25th; Rio, Danny Gans, 22-30; Riviera, Splash, until 24th, Crazy Girls and La Cage, 15-26, Comedy Club, 22-25; Treasure Island, Mystere, until 25th; Tropicana, Folies Bergere, 11-26. i Question: You wrote that the Aladdin will be imploded in-February.

How many imploded casinos does that make? Answer: The Aladdin will be the fifth. Implosion-mania be The Advertiser, I.