Hanging out at Zion

I’ve finally managed to process all the hundreds of photos I’ve taken, & have finally made it to the public library to use their internet since uploading all my photos to Picasa would eat up a lot of our Verizon MiFi bandwidth.

We’ve just been hanging out around the trailer, being lazy, watching TV & napping, but also doing some little chores. We haven’t accomplished much more than some sightseeing tho. Sure feels good to let my mind catch up with my body.

We finally made the auto tour of Zion Canyon proper. At the end of the Canyon is a River Walk (all 1.3 miles on way) that ends at the Virgin River. . .sort of. IF I felt like getting my feet wet (which I didn’t), you can walk farther into the canyon to the Narrows area where the canyon walls barely allow the river to run. Sure would love to see a slot canyon, but not this time of year.

You can view my boat-load of Zion photos in Picasa by clicking on this photo.

This place is just awesome (I know — an overused word — but SO true!). One of my very favorite college classes was Geology, so I really get a kick out of seeing all these huge rock formations. And it’s so much different than anything around Missouri.

We also took a day to drive west to I-15, then north to Cedar City, east on (the infamous) Hwy 14, & finally up to Cedar Breaks National Monument. . .at 10,640’ elevation & 27° with 4-5” of snow cover. Unfortunately, the walk to the lookout from the road was snow covered & I was wearing tennis shoes. [Note to self: to put snow boots in pickup.] Most of the snow had melted down & refrozen into a fairly solid surface, but some loose, drifting snow made it’s way around the top of my shoes. And the wind felt like it was blowing at hurricane levels by the time we made it to the lookout. But WOW, that is one spectacular view, especially with the snow on the cliffs.

I survived the snow & we made our way to the northern portion of Zion NP called Kolob National Monument which is above & looking toward Zion Canyon. Of course it was cloudy (& working up a storm) so the view supposedly all the way to the Grand Canyon was murky & blue-tinted. Still a handsome line of cliffs above that canyon.

During our stay here in Zion NP we plan to make a day trip south to see the Pink Sand Dunes. I’m not really fond of sand (it’s just SO SO intrusive!), but it’s worth a one-time look.

We’ve had spectacular weather here for over a week, but it started raining Thursday evening. . .& continued until early Saturday afternoon. We even had some non-accumulating snow flakes in the canyon valley Saturday morning, so now the surrounding mountains are all decked out with some Christmas white on them. I was really wanting to escape winter this year, but at least the roads are clear & I don’t have to get out in the cold often.

There IS those morning & evening walks with Kira tho that are a bit nippy at times, but they’re also great photo ops. Last night her leash slipped out of my hand as I was getting ready for our walk, & she went charging across the road to the small mule deer pack on their way to the river. Of course the deer scattered in six different directions, but I could almost hearing Miss Kira thinking “Oh, those aren’t dogs. And whatever they are, they’re BIG!” She just stood there in the road looking at them! [Goooood girl.]

We’ve met a few fellow campers in the Park, but no one is staying long enough to get too friendly with. At least our camp host, Mike from Light Curve on the Road blog, has been very helpful. I guess we’ll have a quiet, laid back Christmas here.