Day 32: Zion National Park

Day 31: How Adam became a Junior Ranger

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT 

and Bryce to Zion National Park, UT

We parked our car at the shuttle parking outside the entrance to Bryce Canyon.
Today was a free visitor day and park entrance was free for everyone. 
We watched a movie of the history of the canyon and then headed out to see the sights.
The shuttle dropped us off at Bryce Point. 

People can imagine all sorts of things in these fins and hoodoos.

Cathedrals, church spires, the Terracotta Warriors....

Bryce Canyon was named after a Mormon settler, Ebenezer Bryce, who built his cabin near the canyon and people started calling it after him.

We were impressed. Everywhere we looked, we were amazed at the scenery and how far we could see.

We decided to walk the rim trail between Bryce Point and Inspiration Point.  About 1.5 miles. It was a beautiful day. Sunny skies, some clouds, warm temps.

Some of the trail took you pretty close to the edge.

Natalie learned it freezes 200 out of 365 days per year here in Bryce Canyon. That causes much of the erosion that takes place and forms the fins and hoodoos. 

Adam learned that Bryce Canyon isn't really a canyon after all.  It's a plateau. A river cuts through the ground to form a canyon and there is no river here. 

Adam participated in the Junior Ranger Program and earned his pin. He was a happy camper. We sat through a Ranger led talk on the geology of the area. Very interesting.

After spending most of the day exploring Bryce, we hooked up "little whitey" (the name of Nana and Paw's car that has been towed behind the motor home with us) and set out for Zion National Park. It was a 2 hour drive and one of the best we've encountered.

Total Miles: 85

Total Distance: 4,525

 Our Route: 

We drove back out of Bryce Canyon on hwy 12. We then turned on hwy 89 south toward Kanab. When we got to the town of Oderville, we took hwy 9 into Zion National Park.

This was one of the first formations we encountered.

Look at these striations in the rock

Look at this ROAD!

When we got to the second tunnel, we pulled over and handed our special $15.00 permit to bring a 31' motor home through the tunnel. The ranger stopped oncoming traffic for us to drive through by ourselves.

The RV is too large side to side for oncoming traffic, so we had to drive in the middle of the lane. 

It's a one mile long tunnel. Pretty cool. 

We found a pull-out and took a break.

You can see the Arch.

Then we had to navigate on several hairpin switchbacks to get to the other side of the park, where our campground was located. 

We arrived safely at the Zion Campground and RV Park in Springdale, UT. Right outside the south entrance of the park. Being a weekend, it is pretty crowded.

After getting the RV settled in our spot, we brewed some coffee and took a walk around the campground. 

We met a large group of campers from an Ohio University, who are participating in a Geo Journey program. It's a nine week class where they travel through many national parks. Sounds pretty cool. 

They looked like they all we enjoying it too.

Day 30: and how we took an accidental detour

Ogden, UT to Bryce Canyon, UT

Total Miles: 300

Total Distance: 4,440

Our Route:

We drove on I-15 through all sorts of construction work in Salt Lake City, where I took the RV for a joy ride in Orem, UT. (Accidentally.) 

The lane I was driving in exited me onto W. University Drive and after a brief delay, we figured out how to get back on the the Interstate and our journey continued. 

Not knowing where the next gas station would be, we took frequent opportunities to gas up. 

The mountains were constantly beside us.

But the trees are now more juniper and cedar. 

You can tell the sky is much more clear south of SLC. There are no wildfires blowing smoke here.

Finally, we exited I-15 for good and took hwy 20, which is a cut through road to take us over to hwy 89.

It felt like an endless road stretching out before us. Adam said every few hours,

"Are we there yet?" 

or 

"Mom, show me on your GPS, how much further?"

Hwy 20 took us over a scenic mountain climb. Our little RV strained,

"I think I can,... I think I can,...

I think I can."

Here, we are nearing the top.

Rounding the curve, and you can see for miles in the distance.

Here's another look

When we reached hwy 89, we turned south toward the town of Panguitch. Then we looked for hwy 12 to take us to Bryce. 

We didn't know about Red Canyon, but stumbled across it just before Bryce. We decided to stop at a road side rest stop, and take a stroll on their .3mile Hoodoo loop. 

We know what hoodoos are by now.

We really needed to get out and run around a bit after 5 hours of driving. 

We tried to imagine what this hoodoo (above my head) reminded us of. 

Natalie said those statues on Easter Island. 

I said Indians back to back with their arms crossed.

What do you see?

The trees we noticed on the trail are called Bristlecone Pine, but there are Pinyon pines, Ponderosa pines, juniper, spruce and fir as well in this Dixie National Forest.

They told us the Red Canyon is one of the most photographed places in Utah. It has brilliant red soil with vibrant green trees.

Most of the trees were twisted around, due to the wind.

These natural tunnels were really neat to do through.

The view from our RV campground.

We're getting really good at setting up and breaking down our campsites now. I guess we should be, we've had 4 weeks to practice. 

Our campground is called Canyon Pines. It advertised a heated pool and hot tub, but they failed to mention it was a 3 minute walk down the road to the Canyon Pines Motel. 

We decided to drive down there. 

The hot tub was not very hot, but we soaked in it anyway.

Tonight's menu was grilled cheese and soup. We had a choice of chicken noodle or tomato. Oh, it hit the spot. 

Thanks, Nana. You're a great cook.

Day 28 & Day 29

Day 28

West Glacier, MT to Dillon, MT

Total Miles:300

Total Distance: 3,820

Our Route:

We set out of West Glacier heading back toward Columbia Heights on hwy 2.  We took a scenic hwy 206 for a few miles to hwy 35. Hwy 35 was said to be very scenic as well. 

A two lane road that runs beside by Flathead Lake. It was smoky from all the wildfires, but still very interesting. 

Near Polson, MT, we picked up hwy 93 again heading south. Just west of Missoula, MT, we found I-90.

We passed through Deer Lodge and Butte, where we then picked up I-15.

We stayed at Southside RV Park in Dillon, MT. The lady at the office was just as nice as she could be. She was so talkative and friendly too. 

She told us she was a history buff and loved to research family histories through DAR. She even looked up things up for the Crisp Family Name and brought the information to us. 

She gave Adam a ride on her 4-wheeler. He was so pleased. 

 The sunset tonight was especially lovely. 

Day 29

Dillon, MT to Ogden, UT

Total Miles: 320

Total Distance: 4,140

Our Route:

We took I-15 all the way south through the southern part of MT, all the way through Idaho and into UT.

We passed over the Snake River, which we remember taking a float trip down when we visited the Tetons a few years ago. 

Then Paw got out the map and he traced it all the way from the Tetons to where we were on I-15. 

Pretty neat. Maybe you should too?

For lunch, we stopped at a road side rest stop. I was thinking, we could eat a quick bite for lunch and let us all get out to stretch out legs and then be back on the road again.

Well, 

I didn't know we had stopped at such an interesting place. We had to check it out...

The lava flowed out of giant fissures in the earth's crust. Not from a volcano. It oozed out and then cooled quickly on the top forming a crust. 

The lava flow is called Pahoehoe.

This area is also called a "high desert". There are sage brush growing here.

A one mile nature walk

We had to explore it.

Juniper berries.

After our delay, we made it to Utah!!

The mountains of Utah

Even this area has seen lots of smoke from the Idaho wildfires. Not so bad this week though, we were told.

The mountains here have red in them. Don't know what kind of trees they are, but they are quite beautiful. We are used to the yellow Quaking Aspens from the northern states and Canada. 

Our campground tonight is in Ogden, UT. It's next to the interstate, but has a heated pool and hot tub. We are excited to relax in it before supper. 

Tomorrow, another long drive down to Bryce Canyon.