(NOTE: View a larger picture by clicking on the photo(s) above.)
I know, you are wondering what these pictures are all about. Hang on, I’ll get to it in a minute. First, let me tell you where we have gone. I guess you already know from last weeks blog, and I also know that you didn’t get the pictures I had promised. So, maybe I’ll have time to get those put on. Just back up to last week and see if they are there.
Onward. We left Arizona as planned and after a three hour trip (sort of like Gilligan’s “three hour tour“) arrived in Las Vegas. We made our way to the campground where we had made reservations, pulled into the drive (going the wrong way, the exit instead of the entrance) and went to the office. Guess what? We had no reservations and they had no available spots. They told us we could wait in a “dry-dock” (no hookups) till the next day to see if a spot became available. “No thank you!”
We went back to the truck to look in our directory to see if we could find another campground. One of the workers showed up and asked our problem. We explained our situation and he recommended a campground (Sam’s Town) on the other side of town, about 12 miles away. But first, we had to back out of the driveway (no place to swing the trailer around) onto a major highway with lots of traffic. The worker helped direct us to accomplish this feat, and we were on our way.
As I drove, Carolyn got on the phone to call the campground to check on the possibilities. We were told they had a spot for us. They have some 253 sites. We told them we were on the way. They did have a spot, but of course, the fee was much higher than where we had made reservations. The site was one of those crowded ones with RVs about three feet away on either side. No place to park the truck except half in the street in front of the trailer. But, we settled in to make the best of it.
That was on a Saturday. We had discovered that Carolyn’s cousin was in town visiting relatives. We were invited to have dinner with them that evening. The cousin was going back to Tennessee early on Sunday morning. We had an enjoyable, relaxing dinner with family. An unexpected pleasure.
We decided to tour the sites of Las Vegas on Sunday. We don’t gamble, but we could at least enjoy the sights of the opulent hotels and casinos. Ok, here is where some of the pictures come in. The first is of Caesar’s Palace showing the Angel Trumpeters high above the streets. The second is the Gondolier rides at the Venetian Hotel, and no, we didn‘t take a ride. We visited most of the new and popular locations including the famed “water show” at the Bellagio Hotel. We walked, and walked, and walked. Not counting the walking inside the locations we visited, we calculated that we walked 17 blocks (twice--round-trip) about a distance of eight miles. As most of you know, we are good walkers, but this was a little over-kill.
We rested our feet the rest of Sunday evening and prepared to leave Las Vegas on Monday morning. We pulled out around 9:00 a.m. headed to a campground near Zion National Park in Utah. The trip was a relatively short one, about 160 miles. We arrived around Noon and found our camping spot. Again, the campsite had no room to park the truck. There is also a hotel attached to the campground, so we were able to park in the hotel lot. A little inconvenient, but it worked.
We were continually impressed and awed by the beauty of the mountains surrounding us. I’ll tell you about the next pictures shortly. We planned to spend a day exploring the Park. The city of Springdale, Utah is located just outside the Zion Park gate. The town (population 545) provided free shuttle service to and from the park every 15 minutes. Inside the park was another free shuttle service that ran every 6-8 minutes taking one to every stop on the six mile Zion Park Road. Each stop provided an opportunity for photos and hiking trails. The trails had a hiking distance of anywhere from half-a-mile to thirteen miles, and varying degrees of difficulty.
The third picture above is a view of some of the mountain scenery found in Zion Park. However, in no way does the picture depict the actual beauty of the view. The mountains were formed over 180 million years ago by the erosion caused by water which now forms the Virgin River. The Mormons settled the area back in the 1800’s and gave the mountains their distinctive names. In the picture above, the left-most area is called the West Tabernacle. The next white formation to it’s right is called Angel’s Landing. The flat-topped area to the far right, with the red streaks running down it, is called The Alter of Sacrifice. And so it goes; Court of the Patriarchs, The Bee Hive, Weeping Rock, etc..
We took three of the hiking trails for a total combined distance of about five miles. The fourth picture above is of the path we took to The Emerald Pools, a distances of two miles……..up. As you can see the path is narrow without any signs of guard rails to keep one from tumbling hundreds of feet below. As the Park literature says, “Your safety is your responsibility.” We were lucky that day…..but tired!
The last picture is of yours truly sitting beside the Virgin River in Zion Canyon. I guess you can tell by the way I am dressed that it was cool. We left Arizona with temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s, and got back to the reality of temps in the 30s. From Zion Canyon it’s onward to Provo, Utah. Catch-you-up from there next time.
Onward. We left Arizona as planned and after a three hour trip (sort of like Gilligan’s “three hour tour“) arrived in Las Vegas. We made our way to the campground where we had made reservations, pulled into the drive (going the wrong way, the exit instead of the entrance) and went to the office. Guess what? We had no reservations and they had no available spots. They told us we could wait in a “dry-dock” (no hookups) till the next day to see if a spot became available. “No thank you!”
We went back to the truck to look in our directory to see if we could find another campground. One of the workers showed up and asked our problem. We explained our situation and he recommended a campground (Sam’s Town) on the other side of town, about 12 miles away. But first, we had to back out of the driveway (no place to swing the trailer around) onto a major highway with lots of traffic. The worker helped direct us to accomplish this feat, and we were on our way.
As I drove, Carolyn got on the phone to call the campground to check on the possibilities. We were told they had a spot for us. They have some 253 sites. We told them we were on the way. They did have a spot, but of course, the fee was much higher than where we had made reservations. The site was one of those crowded ones with RVs about three feet away on either side. No place to park the truck except half in the street in front of the trailer. But, we settled in to make the best of it.
That was on a Saturday. We had discovered that Carolyn’s cousin was in town visiting relatives. We were invited to have dinner with them that evening. The cousin was going back to Tennessee early on Sunday morning. We had an enjoyable, relaxing dinner with family. An unexpected pleasure.
We decided to tour the sites of Las Vegas on Sunday. We don’t gamble, but we could at least enjoy the sights of the opulent hotels and casinos. Ok, here is where some of the pictures come in. The first is of Caesar’s Palace showing the Angel Trumpeters high above the streets. The second is the Gondolier rides at the Venetian Hotel, and no, we didn‘t take a ride. We visited most of the new and popular locations including the famed “water show” at the Bellagio Hotel. We walked, and walked, and walked. Not counting the walking inside the locations we visited, we calculated that we walked 17 blocks (twice--round-trip) about a distance of eight miles. As most of you know, we are good walkers, but this was a little over-kill.
We rested our feet the rest of Sunday evening and prepared to leave Las Vegas on Monday morning. We pulled out around 9:00 a.m. headed to a campground near Zion National Park in Utah. The trip was a relatively short one, about 160 miles. We arrived around Noon and found our camping spot. Again, the campsite had no room to park the truck. There is also a hotel attached to the campground, so we were able to park in the hotel lot. A little inconvenient, but it worked.
We were continually impressed and awed by the beauty of the mountains surrounding us. I’ll tell you about the next pictures shortly. We planned to spend a day exploring the Park. The city of Springdale, Utah is located just outside the Zion Park gate. The town (population 545) provided free shuttle service to and from the park every 15 minutes. Inside the park was another free shuttle service that ran every 6-8 minutes taking one to every stop on the six mile Zion Park Road. Each stop provided an opportunity for photos and hiking trails. The trails had a hiking distance of anywhere from half-a-mile to thirteen miles, and varying degrees of difficulty.
The third picture above is a view of some of the mountain scenery found in Zion Park. However, in no way does the picture depict the actual beauty of the view. The mountains were formed over 180 million years ago by the erosion caused by water which now forms the Virgin River. The Mormons settled the area back in the 1800’s and gave the mountains their distinctive names. In the picture above, the left-most area is called the West Tabernacle. The next white formation to it’s right is called Angel’s Landing. The flat-topped area to the far right, with the red streaks running down it, is called The Alter of Sacrifice. And so it goes; Court of the Patriarchs, The Bee Hive, Weeping Rock, etc..
We took three of the hiking trails for a total combined distance of about five miles. The fourth picture above is of the path we took to The Emerald Pools, a distances of two miles……..up. As you can see the path is narrow without any signs of guard rails to keep one from tumbling hundreds of feet below. As the Park literature says, “Your safety is your responsibility.” We were lucky that day…..but tired!
The last picture is of yours truly sitting beside the Virgin River in Zion Canyon. I guess you can tell by the way I am dressed that it was cool. We left Arizona with temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s, and got back to the reality of temps in the 30s. From Zion Canyon it’s onward to Provo, Utah. Catch-you-up from there next time.
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