Blogs from Zion National Park, Utah, United States, North America - page 14

We left Page heading for Zion National Park under sunny skies and cool temps. The drive from Page to Kanab along the Vermillion Cliffs and Escalante Staircase is beautiful. Utah never fails to impress us. The colors, shapes and contours are ever-changing. You can't get bored with the variety. At Kanab we decided to keep going and camp between Zion and Bryce Canyon. We found a nice little campground, Bauer Ranch, and decided to stay for 2 nights, doing Zion today and Bryce tomorrow. After setting up camp and putting dinner in the crock pot to cook while we were gone, we headed to Zion National Park. It is one of the most impressive places we've been. We finally had the time to take the shuttle from the visitor center into the canyon. What an awesome ... read more

With the bright lights firmly in the rear-view mirror, we left Vegas and made our way east on a road-trip that would take us through 4 of the United States south-western states. The first area we headed to was perhaps one of the greatest engineering accomplishments of the 20th century - the Hoover Dam. The dam keeps back the man-made Lake Mead. The road to Hoover Dam gets quite congested as the main highway actually runs over the dam itself. It marks the state line between Nevada and Arizona, straddling the Black Canyon. A new fly-over bridge is in the process of being built, meaning the dam will only really cater for tourist traffic in the near future. The dam itself is an enormous wall of concrete. No surprises there. It is bonded to either side ... read more

Nature's rock art takes another unique form in Zion national park. Zion seems to have an aura that is ethereal. If this park were in India, I bet it would have become a place of worship with the devout seeing God in every towering monolith in the park! It is the most visited park in Utah. High colorful towers of rock with vegetation on the floor. Fall was nearly at its peak during the time I visited the park. Yellow is the most visible fall color with some spots of red. The park has a shuttle system which ferries tourists from the nearby Springdale town and from the visitor center to all the points of interest in the park. I arrived at the east entrance of the park just before sunrise. This was after taking about ... read more

Tuesday, October 07, 2008 This was a day of mixed activities in the park. Kayla did laundry while Richard cycled into Springdale for some rock shopping. He picked up two more specimens for his collection. This afternoon, with our legs still feeling the after effects of yesterday’s hike, we decided to ride the park shuttle to the furthest point and hike a short trail into the canyon area known as the Narrows. Many people were intent on getting very wet by hiking further into the narrows than dry land would allow, and there is an adventure company here that will take groups into the narrows, providing everyone with water-walking sandals, neoprene socks and large walking sticks for balance. There is also a famous extreme sports hike here that starts some distance up the narrows, and is ... read more

10/05/2008 We’ve off to a hiking vacation to parks of Utah. We will fly to Las Vegas and early tomorrow morning drive to Utah. I've never been to Las Vegas and never wanted to go. It's not on our itinerary. The outdoors and not nightlife is my highlife.... read more