Everywhere you go, in tiny country towns, or larger centres, you are reminded that you are in Mormon country. A tiny village with half a dozen houses, will have a Mormon Church!!
Via a town called Springdale, we entered the Zion National Park. Set up our vans, got everything hooked up, and realised why we felt absolutely knackered. It was about 36 degrees C...
The views from the back and front of our vans were truly spectacular - we were in a narrow valley, literally at the foot of two mountains, and beside a small river.
We had an orientation drive (in a park provided bus) around the park in the afternoon, and decided what we would do more extensively the next day. Too many choices... So, rather than make a decision in haste, we sat outside for a couple of hours and had a few drinks, gazed up at the cliffs, marvelling at our situation.
Set off on the Park Shuttle bus quite early the next morning, and bussed it to the "Narrows" - the place where the only way you can progress further along the valley is by walking IN the river!! It was very pleasant, and nicely busy, not crowded. This shuttle is a hop on hop off bus, and comes and goes all day, about 20 minutes apart, so it's fantastically convenient.
Caught the shuttle again and came back another couple of stops, and did a lovely walk along the river again - not difficult at all, and once again we were seemingly in a "cathedral"...
Next came a slightly harder challenge - actually got sucked in to doing a shocker of a walk.... Up hill god knows how many metres, over rocks, boulders and sand.... Ended up walking for about 2 hours, mostly up hill, to what was reputedly a stunning walk to the Emerald Pools (shallow pools of water collecting from spring water run-off). By the time we got back to the bottom, we were nearly catatonic - it was again about 36 degrees. Fell into a lunch place and were delivered the most hideous 'meal' ever eaten. A 'chicken salad sandwich' was a ghastly mixture of mayonnaise, something slightly more solid, a couple of small dots of something green (onion?) and something else (possibly shredded meat), served on a wheat biscuit - which was of course soggy, because it had been made hours before. The 'salad' was a lettuce leaf on the plate beside this concoction, one slice of tomato, and 3 slices of gherkin. What a reward for a hard morning's work!! We shared this one thankfully, and had not ordered one each!!
Arthur was proudly wearing his North Melbourne hat, and as we were stretched out under the shade of a tree, a fat, balding, heavily tattood fella, along with his similarly adorned partner, came to sit near us. He was wearing a sleeveless "Collingwood Magpies" jumper!! Arch and I looked at each other, and marvelled at how perfect he was for a Collingwood supporter. Couldn't resist the temptation to talk to him, only to discover he was a Pom, had lived in Brisbane for a few years, and his Aussie mate had given him the jumper. He was actually a very nice bloke!!!
Had a few drinks outside, with our hosts, Athol and Diane, and put together some Spag. Bol for dinner. Fell into bed..... Slept like the dead!!
So far, the National Parks have been stunningly maintained, all the bathrooms are clean and functioning, and there is NEVER any rubbish around - not in the camp grounds either.
Had to get up early the next morning, on the move again - this time moving on to Bryce Canyon.
Drove miles through a lovely little (seemingly) fertile valley, lots of good pasture and happy animals. Obviously a series of little Mormon settlements along this valley; not much money around here though, but there are dozens of wrecked vehicles of all descriptions gathering in people's yards. Maybe junk value???
Suddenly we must be in porcelain doll land - at least 10 houses/shops offering either finished dolls, or dolls made to order, one even offering lessons!!! Shame we didn't have time to take up that offer.
Drove several miles through this lovely wide valley, beside gorgeous Pink Mountains, and paddocks of farmed Bison - none wild anywhere any more methinks.
Very suddenly we enter a narrow Canyon, full of stunning red sandstone, wind sculpted peaks - this is of course Red Canyon!! This goes on for miles, and then just as suddenly as it began, the Canyon ends, the peaks have gone, and all you have is long worn down, red gravel hills. Amazing. Then low hills covered in vegetation and back to a very wide valley, and a village with many motels and cafes.
The Mountains of Bryce Canyon loom large........
Just put $150 worth of petrol in van, and that's only about 3/4 of a tank!!
We set up the van again, and took the park shuttle into Bryce Canyon. Omigod... It is once again truly stunning, but VERY different from Zion. This time you are up above the peaks looking down on more of the most amazing sculpted peaks - called Hoodoos. These "things" are life-like creations out of a long-forgotten fairy tale - in fact the original Indian inhabitants thought they were so life-like that they were the spirits of their dead ancestors, returned. The vision is too stunning to take in....
Again the colours are red, pink, browns, shades of white and dark grey. Indescribable.
We planned to again seek out several walks to do today (Tuesday), and perhaps bravely, even venture down to ground level.
Cooked some yummy hamburgers for dinner, and then sat at the table, and watched the final set and a half of the US Open Tennis, live on the little computer. That was good.
Tuesday - woke to rain, and COLD. We had arranged a 3 hour bus tour of the harder-to-get-to parts of the canyon this morning, followed by a picnic lunch, and some walks. We did go on the bus tour, but that proved to be a waste of time - absolutely poured all the time, and we were mostly up IN the clouds, so there were NO views. However, the bus stopped at the prescribed viewing points, and most of the people put on their rain gear, and trudged off to look; came back on board, took off their rain gear, and sat down. This was repeated for nearly 3 hours..... I didn't even bother getting off the bus - reckoned we had seen much better yesterday, and with several more stunning National Parks to visit, didn't see the point!!! Anyway, it poured all day, stopping about 3pm, so there were no more walks today. So, we had a quiet time, Arch had a snooze, and I caught up on photo's and Blog.
Sorry if this is boring.....
Cheers,
A&A
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