Monday, July 10, 2006
Zion National Park: Southeast Utah
6/01/06
We drove to Zion National Park today. The first half of the trip or so was pretty uninteresting, flat and yellow. Then, we started to climb and the mountains changed from gray to red. We passed a dam and a beautiful blue lake-Lake Powell. The grades were pretty steep and the views breath-taking. We stopped in Kenab, Utah for lunch. BLT on sour dough, tasty. After lunch, we climbed higher and got to the park entrance around 2PM. We had to un-hitch the truck to go in because of length restrictions related to hairpin turns and switch-backs. Good thing, too, as fred began to have trouble with the brakes over heating on the RV. There are two tunnels going into the park. One is not so long, the other is three miles or so with a steep down grade all the way and is black as ink. Quite an adventure. It cost $15.00 to take the RV through the tunnel because they have to stop traffic in the other direction because of the width of the vehicle. We just barely meet the height restriction too. We're staying in the campground in the park. We got the last spot. It is very primitive. Electricity only. No bath houses. If you don't have your own arrangements, you can have to drive to the next town where you can shower for a fee. We will have to be sparing of the water in our tank. When we were settled, we rested a while then took the shuttle on a drive through the canyon. Beautiful. There were lots of mule deer grazing all over. Even on the lawn near the Inn. There are signs everywhere telling you not to feed the wildlife. Seems even the deer and turkeys have gotten aggressive with tourists. Fred saw a different variety of hummingbird, ground feeder, evidently. We saw bats when we got back to camp. They say there are many varieties here. They are not my favorite animal. Now we are pooped. Fred has a belly ache. Maybe he has what Jigger had. She seems cured. Tomorrow, we will drive to Bryce Canyon in the morning, then, noodle around this park in the afternoon. I hope to learn a little about the flora and maybe see more fauna. ¶ 5:12 PM
6/01/06
We drove to Zion National Park today. The first half of the trip or so was pretty uninteresting, flat and yellow. Then, we started to climb and the mountains changed from gray to red. We passed a dam and a beautiful blue lake-Lake Powell. The grades were pretty steep and the views breath-taking. We stopped in Kenab, Utah for lunch. BLT on sour dough, tasty. After lunch, we climbed higher and got to the park entrance around 2PM. We had to un-hitch the truck to go in because of length restrictions related to hairpin turns and switch-backs. Good thing, too, as fred began to have trouble with the brakes over heating on the RV. There are two tunnels going into the park. One is not so long, the other is three miles or so with a steep down grade all the way and is black as ink. Quite an adventure. It cost $15.00 to take the RV through the tunnel because they have to stop traffic in the other direction because of the width of the vehicle. We just barely meet the height restriction too. We're staying in the campground in the park. We got the last spot. It is very primitive. Electricity only. No bath houses. If you don't have your own arrangements, you can have to drive to the next town where you can shower for a fee. We will have to be sparing of the water in our tank. When we were settled, we rested a while then took the shuttle on a drive through the canyon. Beautiful. There were lots of mule deer grazing all over. Even on the lawn near the Inn. There are signs everywhere telling you not to feed the wildlife. Seems even the deer and turkeys have gotten aggressive with tourists. Fred saw a different variety of hummingbird, ground feeder, evidently. We saw bats when we got back to camp. They say there are many varieties here. They are not my favorite animal. Now we are pooped. Fred has a belly ache. Maybe he has what Jigger had. She seems cured. Tomorrow, we will drive to Bryce Canyon in the morning, then, noodle around this park in the afternoon. I hope to learn a little about the flora and maybe see more fauna. ¶ 5:12 PM
