...when he created Zion National Park. It's truly spectacular. I'm sitting on the balcony right now watching the last glimpses of sunlight fade from the red rocks soaring above - the beauty is almost unearthly. We started the morning out with our regular 45 minute power walk...on the Vegas strip. If you think it's tawdry at night, wait until you see it at 6:30 in the morning. On the way out through the casino you catch the few all nighters who are determined to win back their fortune..and the couple of guys still falling off the bar stools. You can see [View Full Entry]

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The campfire coals Friday morning were hot enough to easily start a morning fire. A nearby woodpecker continued with his calling from the night before, tap, tap, tapping, "Hey girls! Get a load of this!" Sullen grey skies did not welcome the day. The morning planning was led by the idea that Memorial Weekend crowds would descend on Zion and the other popular spots in the region. We thought it best to head into the back country and primitive camp out some isolated dirt road. We decided to head East to Escalante and Boulder, and travel out the Burr Trail to [View Full Entry]

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Kolbob Canyon Dad and I were both tired today. Having spent nearly 6 hours in the car yesterday, and been on the go all week, we decided to find something close by. We settled on Kolbob Canyon in the NW corner of Zion NP, which is only 15 minutes from St George. Kolbob is not as popular as the other parks we've visited this week; we were quite pleased with the peace and quiet. My inner geologist was oooh'ing and aah'ing over the clear definition between the sediment layers, and the clear example of a canyon in the making. I think [View Full Entry]

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Sunshine arrived by 0530 Thursday morning in our Great Basin National Park campsite. The sound of the rushing creek was punctuated by the buzz of hummingbirds looking for nectar in the colorful prayer flags. We were soon underway, crossing more of the Great Basin. The Great Basin is remarkable in it's series of North-South oriented mountain ranges, all pushed up by tectonic plate movement. Between these ranges lie flat basins. Crossing Nevada and Western Utah has a distinct pattern: long sections of straight flat basin, followed by a quick run over a mountain pass, then traversing another [View Full Entry]

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Multi-National Zion Dad and I went to Zion NP today. We were amazed by both the geology and plethora of languages! We spoke with people from Spain, Switzerland, Germany, The Netherlands, and France. Before traveling to Zion today, I'd been mixing up Zion and Bryce. No more!! Bryce = fantastic stone sculptures; Zion = amazing colors, and the juxtaposition of water and desert. The footbridge into the park was a very nice transition. There is something more I want to say here, but can't think of it at the moment. We went on several hikes; River Walk, Temple of Sinawava, alon [View Full Entry]

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I got lazy- so instead of creating an entry for each day, I combined all 3 days into one entry. May 19, 2009 We drove south and then headed west to Zion which was less than an hour drive away from Bryce. We entered the park from the east side and I was increasingly excited whenever we drove pass prickly pears one after another. They were dangerously gorgeous! Though, I learned later from the park shuttle driver that prickly pear is actually edible and tastes quite good. The winding small two-way reddish asphalt road took us through land of lava-like looking [View Full Entry]

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10th & 11th May, 2009 10th May This morning we left Cedar City early and drove up to Zion National Park, which is located in southern Utah. We are Freedom camping again, in the Southern camp ground. If you plan to come over to USA and visit the National Parks they charge an entry fee into each one, around $25 US, but you can buy a year pass for $80 which in our case is a big saving. The parks are brilliant, Rangers on hand, in Zions case they have banned vehicles from entering the park, so run a free shuttle [View Full Entry]

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With a big day ahead of us, we wanted to get up and going right away. We were checking out of our room by 7:30 am so we could meet our friend, Dawn Kiss, for a breakfast buffet at a hotel restaurant by 8:00 am. Dawn had worked in our church nursery when Paul was little, so it was very fun to reconnect with her. Afterwards we walked outside to quickly look out at the strip one more time before getting in the car for our two hour drive to St. George, Utah. Our drive took us out of Nevada, through [View Full Entry]

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Another horrible Holiday Inn Express breakfast and then we checked out to head to Bryce Canyon. I didn't know much about the trip - not having done it before - and had a feeling it would be rather a boring 4 1/2 hours. And an hour out of Vegas it looked like I was right. We stopped at St George, just off the I-15 for some gas and a quick lunch - Subway again! We were taking I-15 north-east from Nevada, across the corner of Arizona into Utah. The first few hours were long, straight and relatively flat. However we found [View Full Entry]

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Hi All: Sorry about the missing photos in yesterday's blog. I'm told that the ISP changed servers last night and lost a BUNCH of stuff, apparently including our photos. Today is Fri, Apr 17. We drove from Page, AZ to Glendale, UT where we set up camp for a two night stay. About 2 PM we loaded up the van and drove over to Zion NP. We thought the approach was incredible, but were blown away by the views in canyon proper. I'll try to put a few of the photos on here - - but I gotta tell you, they [View Full Entry]

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