Bryce and Zion, return visit!

We were here 26 years ago with the boys. We stayed at a KOA a few miles up the road. The campground is still there. My most vivid memory was returning after a day at the park and there had been a sudden storm with wind and rain. We were closed up tight, but awnings were askew and many campers and tenters were wet. There were dead rattlesnakes on the road that had washed down. One older couple was trying to get all their wet stuff out of their tent to dry. I said to Jim, when we are that old we won’t be sleeping on the ground. Looking back, I’m sure they were younger than we are now.

Anyways, we’re at the Zion Family Ranch Campground in Glendale, Utah. I can now add Utah to my state map. Our rule is that we have to spend a night in our camper in that state before we put it on the map. The campground is small, 4 RV sites and 7 tent sites around a little pond. It’s very quiet, except for the peacocks across the street. I had a bit of a head cold, so we drove to Kanab our first day, did laundry, looked for haircuts with no luck, did grocery shopping and got lunch. The next day we went to Bryce. It was as I remember it. We didn’t use the shuttle bus, it was busy but not crazy and there was always a place to park. We did shuttle back after walking a stretch of the rim trail. We drove out to the end, which was over 9000 feet elevation. Altogether a lovely day.

Yesterday we went to Zion. Jim remembers it being crazy 26 years ago. He must have been driving. The mile tunnel through the rocks was fine. They have to stop traffic and only allow one way for the massive RV’s. There was no parking anywhere nearby. We left the park and ended up parked at shuttle stop 8, a couple miles from the park entrance. It is beautiful and majestic, but hard to see through the crowds.

Jim spent time looking for alternatives (he wrote a blog post about it). Turns out there is a slot canyon about 10 minutes from us, so today we headed there. It was lovely, not a long hike, not a long canyon, but very quiet and interesting. Jim spent the afternoon catching up on stuff and I headed into town to geocache for a while. Finally feels a bit warmer tonight. We have a campfire going. Good to be somewhere for five nights. We’re off to Arches tomorrow. Our original plan is to go over the mountains, but Jim got a winter weather advisory for 5-15 inches of snow at high elevations, so we’ll see what things look like in the morning. Sadly, this will be the first weekend I am unable to find a Catholic church. There is one mass 40 minutes away in the opposite direction, which would put us 3 plus hours late leaving. Not sure we’ll have much coverage over the next few days, but I will catch up again soon. Eastward bound!