Traveling the USA Part II

We can only stay in our campsite for two nights since someone has it reserved for tonight, so the first thing we do today is go to find which campsite to move to. Then we pack up and move to our new site.

It's our anniversary so we go into town for lunch (I'm sick of sandwiches) at Wildcat Willies. Unfortunately Wildcat Willies looks nice, but the food is so-so at best and a little over-priced. Oh well.

We go back to the park to drive through the mile-long tunnel. This long narrow tunnel caused us to take a 50 mile detour to get to Zion since vehicles over 50 feet long are not permitted. The tunnel is interesting since it is long, curved, has no lights inside, but several 'windows' cut through the solid rock mountain side.

After driving through the tunnel we drive to the east end of the park. The scenery is different in this part of the park versus the canyon. Some interesting geology--this is Checkerboard Mesa:

At the east end of the drive we see a sign about buffalo. So we drive a few extra miles to see a herd of buffalo. We visit their gift shop and then return to the park.

We stop just east of the tunnel entrance and take the Canyon View Trail for a short steep hike up to an incredible view of Zion Canyon. The trail has some interesting parts, with steep drop-offs, but nothing dangerous whatsoever.

The view at the end of the trail is worth every breathless step. We sit on a rock and enjoy the view.

After the hike we return to the campground. We stop on the way back into the canyon to look up to where we were standing at the end of the Canyon View Trail. We were standing above a large arch in the side of the mountain.

It is 100 degrees outside and 93 degrees inside our trailer, so we grab our folding chairs and head down to a shady spot by the creek. Jere and I relax while Joe plays in the creek. We even eat our dinner (cold sandwiches) in the shade (it's still really hot in our trailer at dinnertime). A few tubers float down the river. The water is 47 degrees, they shout hello but they all seem to have reservations about their activity.

After the sun goes behind the mountains, Jere and I take one last bike ride through the canyon. I wish there would be more bike trails like the Pa'Rus Trail in other national parks.

We end our day by looking at the moon rise above the canyon. I try to take a photo, but it really can't capture the beauty of the moon.

A full day of biking and hiking today. We leave the campground around 10am by bike and take the Pa'rus Bike Trail for the first mile or so.

Then at the end of the bike trail we share the road with the shuttle buses into Zion Canyon. The bike ride into the canyon is mostly uphill, though very few large hills. We stop often to admire the scenery and wildflowers (and to catch our breath). We also spend time talking to a couple from Canada and a family from Belgium. I learn that 'joepie' is Dutch for hooray. I mistakenly thought the little boy's name was Joepie, which was written on his t-shirt. This is another park (like Grand Canyon National Park) where more than half of the visitors appear to be international.

Today is hot and sunny so we take lots of breaks. One of the advantages of riding our bikes versus riding the park shuttle is that we can take our time and stop and admire the many wildflowers that are blooming. There are tall oranges flowers everywhere. I need to find out what they are sometime.

Our first stop is at the Emerald Pools Trail. We lock our bikes at Zion Lodge, refill our water bottles (we will drink lots and lots of water today), and head up the trail to the 3 pools.

We then return to the lodge via the Kayenta Trail. The hike up to the pools is hot, but we enjoy the scenery. The cactus and wildflowers are blooming so that helps us forget how hot and sweaty we are.

We have a snack (yummy strawberry smoothie for me and ice cream for the guys) at The Cafe at Zion Lodge before continuing into the canyon for our next stop, The Weeping Rock Trail. This is a short steep trail up to another weeping rock with flowers growing along the rock. Joe stands under the dripping water to cool off.

It's about 5pm so we head back to the campground -- downhill most of the way -- Yea!

We get back around 6pm, have dinner, and relax outside in the shade. Our thermometer read 92 degrees when we returned to the campground.

At 6am we wake up to our alarm, get up and get ready to drive to Zion National Park. We are packed and leave the park before 7am (very early for us).

The 140 miles drive takes us through the Dixie National Forest and some very pretty scenery. Lots of snow still at the summit that we cross.

We arrive at Zion by mid-morning and get a campsite in the park for the next two nights. We're hoping someone cancels so we can stay here three nights. The ranger said to check back and we may be able to stay a 3rd night.

We have dry camped the last several nights, so we need to "dump" our tanks, fill up our water tanks, and take showers. It was so cold at Bryce we weren't anxious to take showers; plus their dump station was closed so we had to conserve our water (no way to refill our fresh water tank at Bryce) -- my hair hasn't been washed in four days. I feel much better after my shower.

The campground is next to the visitor center so we walk over there to plan our day.

We end up taking the free shuttle (cars are not allowed on the scenic drive through the canyon) to the end of the canyon and walking the Riverside Trail.

Then we hop on the shuttle to return to the campground for dinner and an evening of relaxation.

Another cold night here and we forgot to turn our water pump off last night. For some unexplained reason the pump started to run overnight and drained our battery, so I wake up at 6am to turn off the pump and realize we have no battery to power the heater fan. I figure I'm up and dressed (I had gone outside the trailer to try to figure out what was making the odd noise) so I might as well go see the sunrise over the canyon. I start to walk up to the rim of the canyon with my winter coat, hat and gloves, but it is just too cold -- I head back to the trailer and climb under the nice, warm covers til 8am (when we're allowed to turn on the generator and our heater will again work).

We start the day by packing up our 5th wheel so we can move it to a different site in the campground. We could only reserve this site for two nights and now have to find a vacant site for our third night. There are several vacant sites so we pick the one we think will be easiest to pull into, and set up in our new site.

We run some errands and then take the scenic drive to the other end of Bryce NP. Our first stop is Fairyland Canyon:

Soon after leaving the Fairyland Canyon we see a group of antelope grazing beside the road.

Some of the stops are so-so, but some of the stops have incredible views of the canyon. Some of our favorite stops:

Rainbow Point -- the southern most stop on the drive. The view is great, but the snow on the trail is even better. Joe has a great time throwing snowballs at his Dad.

Natural Bridge:

Bryce Point:

Upper Inspiration Point:

We cook dinner (we???)....I cook dinner. WE eat dinner and then spend the rest of the evening relaxing, doing schoolwork and trying to get caught up on my blog.

I wake up early and find that the predicted snow did not come. Yea! So I get up and walk over to the rim of the canyon, and keep on walking. Great way to start the day. The canyon colors are incredible. I get back to the trailer about 90 minutes later to make breakfast for everyone.

It is really cold out this morning, so we hang out in the trailer with the heater going (using our generator) and do some paperwork and schoolwork. We have lunch and then head out for our hike down into the "canyon" which I now know isn't a canyon at all. The campground is located on the Rim Trail, so we take the trail over to Queens Garden Trail for our hike into the canyon. It's a great hike with incredible scenery.

When we get to the end of Queens Garden Trail, we take the connector trail over to the Navajo Loop Trail which takes us across the bottom of the canyon (again, it's not really a canyon, but a geological amphitheatre) and then up to the other side of the canyon. The walk to get back up to the rim of the canyon is not my favorite part, but I make it. The oxygen level at this altitude is reduced so I get out of breath easily.

While we're hiking today, Joe takes a photo of me and tells me to put it on my blog page; being the pushover that I am with my kids, here's Joe's photo of me:

After hiking down, across, and up the other side of the canyon, we have to hike back across the Rim Trail to return to the campground. We are tired! We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening relaxing in the warm trailer. Another cold night is forecasted here.