Category: Zion National Park

Zion Natl Park – Friday September 19, 2014

I caught the 7:00 a.m. bus up the canyon for a hike.  It is actually still dark here at 7:00 a.m. in the morning.  When I was walking through the parking lot by the visitor’s center and the bus stop one of the park volunteer’s was out walking his dog.  The interesting thing about this dog walk was a deer was attacking his dog.  This is the first I’ve heard of this, the deer went for his dog twice.

My original goal for the day was to start at Weeping Rock and head up the trail toward the East side.  The trail to Observation Point and East Side trail splits at the 2 mile mark.  When I got to the trail fork I headed out on the East side trail for about a quarter mile.  It is not much of trail in this area and I got to a point where I was going to have take my pack off to get down a five foot rock face I decided to turn around and go up to Observation Point.

Here is the classical picture from Observation Point.  The high point in the middle is Angels Landing.

Here is the Google map of Observation Point: 37 16.708 N 112 56.378 W http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.27847,-112.93965

In this picture you can see people at the top of Angels Landing.
This is the InReach track of my hike.  The GPS had a lot of trouble when we were down inside the slot canyons.  My FitBit said I hiked 13.68 miles and yes I was hot and tired, hiked from 7:20 to 1:45.  When I got back to the motorhome I had two strawberry daiquiris, they were GOOD.
The Virgin River hiking picture from 2010 is still on all the buses.

The other day I hiked the East Side trail from the East Side entrance station.  Here is a google link to my turn around point at the end of Jolley Gulch:
I am here: 37 15.117 N 112 52.627 W http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.25196,-112.87712

 

Zion Natl Park – St. George, UT – Wednesday September 17, 2014

Monday we got to go on a road trip.  The Saturn (our tow car) has not been happy with the hot weather.   It was getting hot and after the radiator fan came on it would spit out coolant as it was cooling down.  It would stay at it’s normal operating temp as long as we were moving at 30 miles per hour.  I called a shop in St. George I found on AAA and we towed the Saturn into St. George.  They did an excellent job, pressure checked the block and ultimately decided what the car needed was a new radiator cap, all for $50.00.

This morning I got up at 6:00 a.m. and drove to the East side of the park for a hike.
These are pictures from my InReach GPS tracker.
This was my turn around point, the end of Jolley Gulch.  I think I was about 3.5 miles and I had to go back the way I came.  A lot of the trail was loose sand and when I get tired it really sucks the energy out of my legs.  It was a good think I turned around here, I was tired when I got back to the car.
The trail was one of the original roads into this area.
It is really nice up here.

Zion Natl Park – Sunday September 14, 2014

This morning I got up early to see the sun rise over Zion.  My plan was to go the East end of the tunnel and hike the half mile to the view point above the great arch of Zion.  I was the second car in the parking lot and as I started up the trail a group of sheep ran out of the rocks.  I ended up spending 45 minutes taking pictures until too many people showed up the sheep moved on.

Here are a couple of pictures:

Zion Natl Park = Thursday September 11, 2014

We finally made it to Zion, our second significant stop on this trip.  We have traveled 1535 miles and we’ll be here for two weeks.
This is a map of our current travels.

Our campsite is right on the river, site B44.  Being so close to the river helps keep this site cooler then even across the road.  The current weather report calls for 85 to 88 everyday for the next 10 days.

Here are the traveling Flamingos in the front window of the motorhome.

The storm during the first part of the week created a lot of flash flooding.

I took this picture to show the color of the water in the Virgin River. It is usually crystal clear.

We had another first for retirement and traveling for extended periods of time.  The ever popular laundromat, first time I’ve been in a laundromat to wash clothes in over 40 years.  ( I have used them to dry a sleeping bag or two during this time ).

 

Zion Natl Park – Sunday September 8, 2013

Today is our last day at Zion this year. We have used up our allotted 14 days.  We had rain several times today and it is raining right now.
I did get out and took several hundred pictures if flowers and little yellow birds.

It was a good day.

Second Post for the day:

This afternoon I went out and took some little bird pictures.  Here are few of the pictures I took today.

First, Tanya and my picture is still up in all the tram/buses:


A little closer
For the first time since we have been coming to Zion we had clouds.

Here are some of the little bird pictures.


A couple of bee pictures.
This is my flower patch.
And the End of the Day.
It’s Sunday, so have a Great week.

 

Zion Natl Park – Saturday September 7, 2013

Hank had a tough afternoon.

I think he stepped on a bee with his right hind paw.  He did the same thing last spring.  Starting hobbling his paw and licking it really hard.  This time I gave him a Benedryl and he did not go into as much distress as he did in the Spring.   In the Spring we packed up and headed to Hanks vet in Hurricane.  Yes, Hank has a vet in Hurricane.  A couple of years ago he started scratching and couldn’t seem to stop.  We found him a really nice vet who gave him a cortisone shot and it took care of the scratching.    Dogs and children.  In the Spring by the time we got to Hurricane he was doing much better we hung around town for a while and he was back to normal.  This time his paw REALLY hurt for about an hour and he started getting better.  After two hours he back to normal.

Jean wanted to play ball with him this evening.  She got a ball out of his basket and throw it into the bedroom.  He ran into the bedroom got the ball and put it back into his basket, guess he didn’t want to play.

 

Here’s another picture of the arch.

A couple of years ago when I got my new camera I also got 150 – 500 mm lens.  This picture was taken with the 500 mm.  It’s a great lens and I’ve been disappointed I have not had any  birds to take pictures of this year.

Had a thunder shower in the late morning right after Hank and I got back from our morning walk, went all the way to the junction but had to be back for Wait Wait.   Having some lightening this evening but not the projected rain storm.

I think we’ll go to Sand Hollow a Utah State Park on Monday.  It’s not to far from here by Hurricane, Utah don’t know where we’ll go from there.

 

Zion Natl Park – Friday September 6, 2013

Had a great day, didn’t do much.

Took the tram/bus up to the lodge and Jean did some shopping.  I worked at staying out of the sun.

The other day while I was setting out in front of the motor home watching the sun set I thought I could see an arch which is part of display at the museum.  They have a sign with an arrow pointing to an arch way up on the hill side.  Well the other day I discovered you can see the arch from our camp site.

Can you see the arch in this picture?

Ok, does the arrow help?

Here’s the same arch 300mm lens.

And for those that see the arch, does this help?

Zion Natl Park – Thursday September 5, 2013

Day of numbers:
It was 97 yesterday
Going to be 100 today
This afternoon a sandstone rock in the shade at least 1/2 of it in the ground was 75°
Same type of rock in the sun 100°
Red colored asphalt road 141°

This morning Hank and I walked up the river path to the junction.
Couple of morning pictures:

When we got here on Monday I got this glass of water out of the river.
It was full of muddy water on Monday.
Each glass of water going down the valley has this much dirt in it.