St. George's weather is so much warmer than northern Utah around Salt Lake City, that they call it "Dixie". The Mormon's grew cotton here during the Civil War when they couldn't get cotton from the Southeast. Brigham Young had his winter home in St. George. Jim and I visited it and Jacob Hamblin's pioneer home. It was quite interesting to hear the history of the local Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saint's (LDS). We attended a performance of the Southwest Utah Symphony. It was a pops concert with 3 tenors. We have enjoyed some very good concerts and [View Full Entry]

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“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined” . - Thoreau LINK Outdoor Outlet We had an early start on Friday and drove about 70-80 miles north to the northern end of Zion Park. It’s a little known and little used - it’s called Kolob Canyon, and we took the scenic drive up to the top and had our breakfast. We were the only ones there. Yes, there were mosquitoes; I coul [View Full Entry]

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On our way to St. George, we passed through northwestern New Mexico stopping at El Malpais and Inscription Rock National Monuments. El Malpais was molten volcanic basalt, (miles and miles of it,) that had bubbled up in seemingly strange piles of rock and then stopped, forever. Inscription Rock was just that, with a pool of water that attracted travelers for thousands of years. They each added their own grafitti to it, telling many stories. In Marble Canyon, Arizona, we came across what I had been looking for for a long time, desert wildflowers at their peak. It was mile after mile [View Full Entry]

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Drove to Zion National Park from Vegas on our way through Utah to the East Coast. Kind of the long way but we wanted to see these amazing parks in Utah, and they were well worth the detour. We weren't in Zion for very long this day because we wanted to get to Bryce Canyon early enough to explore some and set up camp but what we did see of Zion was amazing and it would be so worth it spend more time there. We entered the park and drove up towards a geocache that we wanted to find. If it [View Full Entry]

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The drive to Zion National Park took us through Hurricane, a small town that obviously makes nearly all of its money from the traffic on the way to Zion National Park, stopped for breakfast at Jerry's' Diner and had the best 1/2 pound cheese burger in the US so far - $3.70 with fries. At Zion National Park we hiked up a trail known as Angels Landing, about 4 hours trek there and back and a treacherous section involving steep drops and chains. Again we were treated to some spectacular views. But the weirdest thing was the people we got chatting [View Full Entry]

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This past August, had to attend a Nuclear Medicine Conference in Las Vegas for Continuing Education Credits. For most people, this would mean a great opportunity for late nights, parties and gambling. But for me? It meant driving the 2.5 hours north to Zion National Park to spend my free time! The first night I stayed at the Mt. Charleston lodge, which is one hour to the northwest of Las Vegas in the Spring Mountains. Few people realize that an 11,000 foot peak is just minutes away from this scorching desert, filled with forests and rock worthy of any mountain lovers [View Full Entry]

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