Will and I finally were back on the road for a relatively short trip. This time we were headed to Zion National Park in Springdale, Utah. We had been to Zion for just a day a number of years ago and always knew that we wanted to come back one day and do some more exploring.
We took our time driving up and spent a night in Farmington, NM. Had a great meal there at the 3 Rivers Brewery. From there it was another five hour or so scenic drive into Zion. We came through the park’s east entrance and drove through the historic tunnel.
We were staying at the Cliffrose Lodge just outside the park entrance in Springdale. We were even more pleasantly surprised that it was an easy walk into the park from the hotel.
We got up the next morning to hike Angel’s Landing. If you haven’t heard of this one before, it’s considered a bucket list item for many and one of the world renowned hikes. This is not a hike for those with a fear of heights as you will be hiking across a knife edge and numerous other places where the trail is on the edge of the cliff face. It is crowded and there are numerous times where you have to wait for people to pass. Also, the rock is sandstone and is slippery, (especially when wet). Have I made this sound fun yet? Will’s plan was to hike as far as he felt comfortable; and then continue to loop his route while I continued on. Actually, it was a really good hike and challenging with all the switchbacks and all the boulder scrambling for the last half mile. It’s only about 5 miles roundtrip, but takes 4-6 hours typically to complete, with waiting for people to pass.
Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. It is a T-Rex. 
The T-Rex made it. 
Gotta watch out for these guys. They are not shy and will take your food.
I didn’t have much in the tank after this one. We had planned on doing another hike that afternoon, but just decided to walk to the next shuttle stop and call it a day. We headed over to Zion Outfitters to rent gear for the next day.
The next morning we got up and got our gear on to hike the Narrows. This is another of the Park’s iconic hikes. The Narrows is the most narrow part of Zion canyon with the 1,000 foot walls only being 20 to 30 feet apart in some places. The trail starts on a paved path for about a mile and after that, in the water you go. You hike up the Virgin River following the canyon and depending on the water level you may end up swimming for portions of the hike. When we went the water was quite chilly at 55 degrees, but the water level was fairly low (44 CFS). The chilly water temperature was the main reason we decided to go ahead and rent gear. We got the pants package which included the shoes, neoprene socks, hiking pole and waterproof pants. There were some places where the water level got to the upper thigh level on us, but nothing deeper than that.
As you can see, Fall is a beautiful time of year to spend some time in Zion.
Our time in Zion was coming to a close and the next day we were once again headed to Las Vegas, but this time not in the heat of Summer. Made a quick stop in Hurricane, UT to pick up a couple T-Shirts from Matt’s Off-Road Recovery. If you haven’t seen this guy’s You Tube channel, check it out. He gets people towed out of some tricky spots.
Before getting to Vegas, we stopped at the Valley of Fire State Park in Overton, Nevada. This is listed as Nevada’s number one State Park and I can see why. The rock formations are really interesting. We hiked through a couple of slot canyons and even managed to spot a Desert Bighorn Sheep. Our hike combined a couple of loops the Fire Wave, White Domes and Seven Wonders Loop. It is close to a 4 mile hike and was really beautiful.
This looks old, but was built for the 1965 movie, The Professionals.
King of the Hill
We had to sadly leave the Valley of Fire and get checked in to our hotel. We had tickets that night to go see Michael Jackson One by Cirque Du Soleil. Music and dancing were great.
Got to hit up Eataly once again while in Vegas. Just love the gluten free crust on their pizza. That night it was on to the show “The Jets 80’s & 90’s Experience Show”. There weren’t many people in the audience the night that we went, but the show was a lot of fun. There are still a few of the original Jets members performing and this group really enjoys having fun with the show. They perform not only their hits, but hits from various artists from the 80’s and 90’s.
There was some type of go-cart convention going on. And boy, are they loud.
The next morning we got up to check out the Red Rocks Canyon area. We chose a loop called the White Rock Loop, which was supposed to be a little over 6 miles. Somehow, in our usual fashion, we managed to turn that into 8.5. Well, at least it was a nice day for a long walk in the desert.
Will was afraid that he would not be able to stay awake for our Gwen Stefani concert that night. Anyway, she was great and yes, he managed to stay up and enjoy the concert.
Our time in Vegas was up, but we made a stop to visit my aunt and cousin. They moved to Arizona not that long ago and it was great to be able to swing by.
