Magical

We moved on to St. George, Utah, where we had the happy surprise of running into two WIN friends, Judy and Bobbe.  We all pulled into the Elks lodge parking lot which is bordered by gorgeous red rocks.

(That's our RV, but Judy's car.)

Although we had been through St. George before, we had never stopped.  Bobbe and Judy had already planned to attend a couple of performances at nearby Tuacahn Amphitheatre.  The amphitheatre is artistically situated in Padre Canyon, surrounded by 1500 foot red sandstone cliffs.  I tagged along with the ladies when they attended a performance of  Disney's Aladdin.

We had to get into the 'picture' too.  Bobbe, Judy, and I hammed it up as Jasmine, Aladdin, and the Genie.

The show was amazing, worthy of the Disney name.  The scenery was clever and changed with no interruption in the story.

There was a suitably villainous villain (with funny sidekick.)

And to keep the guys entertained, there were dancing girls.

The special effects were pretty cool. Aladdin and Jasmine took flight out over the audience.

And the genie flew off for a tropical vacation.

The whole cast was terrific and it was a magical night.

It also brought back wonderful memories of all the musicals I was in, first in high school, then with a community choral/theatrical group.  I wasn't much of an actress, but I loved being one of the dancers and singing in the chorus.

Bits and Pieces

To wrap up our visit to Zion, we have a few miscellaneous pictures.

First we found this strange tourist attraction.  I call it Dr. Seuss's wild west.

Although it doesn't show up too well in pictures, the buildings are all larger at the top than the bottom.

Weird.

Then there's the shoe tree.

Not sure of the purpose.  Is it making some kind of a statement?

Ron's checking for a pair in his size.

We paid a visit to the historic ghost town of Grafton.  In 1859, it was one of eight settlements that the Mormons established along the Virgin River with the purpose of growing cotton as a cash crop.  Unfortunately, there was hardly enough flat land to grow food for the farming families.  Only three of the eight towns survive today and you can bet they're not growing cotton.

All the beautiful scenery that surrounded them couldn't help their situation.

A plant seen throughout the Zion area is the Datura, a beautiful, but potentially deadly plant.

Most parts of the plant contain toxic hallucinogens which can even cause death!  I assume you have to ingest it, but I don't take any chances and don't even touch it.  Makes me shiver.

One More Hike

About 15 miles north of Virgin on Kolob Terrace Road is the trailhead for the Wildcat Canyon trail.  How can you resist that name?  I sure couldn't.  We decided to take it for a mile, then turn on the Northgate Peaks trail for another mile.  This makes a very easy 4-mile round trip with very little elevation change and some rewarding views.

Since the weather had cooled off and this trail is at a higher altitude, we waited until about 11 AM to begin.  You can see how level the trail is.

Part of the trail had obviously been a road and dead trees and bushes had been planted to keep hikers off one side to allow revegetation. I just had to laugh.

I thought the ferns among the Ponderosa Pines were worth a picture.

 

Once on the Northgate Peaks trail, you follow along a ridge with occasional views of Wildcat Canyon (more if you're willing to go off trail.)

The view at the end cannot be appreciated in a picture, although maybe a late afternoon or evening shot would show it better.

I promised myself that I wouldn't post any more pictures of aspen trees, but those kinds of promises are just made to be broken.  We found these farther up Kolob Terrace Road on the road to Lava Point.

Angels Landing/West Rim Trail

The other day I did the same hike that my sister Diana did in May.  Well, after I went through my pictures and decided which ones to put on the blog, I looked at her post and discovered I had picked many of the exact same pictures she had posted.  How crazy is that?  After much soul searching and internal debate, I've decided to post them anyway.

The Angels Landing and West Rim trails are the same for the first two miles up from the canyon floor.  The reason why I like this trail is that it gives you time to work up to the hill.  It begins with an almost flat section following the river.

And continues with an easy rise for probably 1/2 mile.

But just when you think, "This is going to be a piece of cake," the switchbacks begin.

Before I continue, I have a confession here.  I actually took the previous three pictures on my way back down.  I was so motivated for this hike that I got up, walked from the campground to the visitor center (about two blocks), took the bus to the trailhead, and was on the trail by 9 o'clock.  That's so not like me, but because of my early start, only about a 100 feet section of the trail was in the sun.

But to continue, just when you think you can't go another step, the trail enters Refrigerator Canyon where it's not only cool, but less of a climb.

After a few more switchbacks coming out of the canyon, you arrive at the infamous Walter's Wiggles, a set of 21 short, but steep switchbacks.  Whew!

But once at the top of the Wiggles, you suddenly realize you are at Scout Lookout and have gone two miles.  Here is the decision point.  You can stop there and enjoy the view, continue to the top of Angels Landing (which involves some frightening dropoffs with chains to hold onto), or hike part of the West Rim trail.  Since I had done the first choice once and the second one twice, I chose number three.

After the crowds on the first two miles of the trail, it was very quiet and peaceful.  So much so that I misplaced the trail after less than 1/2 mile.  But no matter, I just sat and ate my lunch while watching the hikers climbing Angels Landing in front of me.

As I look at this picture, I think that, although I remember the climb up had some rough spots, the slide down the other side (on the left) would be really terrifying.  LOL

After enjoying my break, I was just about to give up and turn around when I heard voices coming toward me from farther up the trail.  Oh, that's where it is!

So I continued about another 1/2 mile to this interesting rock

Where I had a fantastic view up Zion Canyon.

It was a great hike and I'm happy to say I didn't get lost on the way down.

Wheeee!

Zion National Park has joined other popular parks in utilizing a free shuttle bus service to decrease the amount of pollution and vehicular crowding on the scenic drive into the canyon.  I am all in favor of this and am especially happy to report that these buses run on propane.

But there is another side benefit and Ron and I took advantage of it the other day.  We loaded our bikes and ourselves on the bus and rode it up to the end of the canyon drive.

 

Since it's been so hot here, I pushed for us to begin our adventure early.  Well, I might have overdone that a bit.  We started out with jackets and could have used gloves.

The canyon was still in the shade for most of our ride, so my pictures don't show how absolutely gorgeous it all was.

We had the road to ourselves except for the buses which are not allowed to pass a moving bicycle.  So every 15 minutes, we pulled off while a bus passed us.  What a glorious feeling of freedom and a wonderful way to experience the canyon.

And except for one small section, the whole road is downhill!

By the time we reached the Court of the Patriarchs, the sun was shining brightly on the peaks.  From the left are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (the white peak on the far right, just peeking out from behind Mount Moroni.)

For the last 1.7 miles back to the visitor center, the canyon widens and the Pa'rus bike/foot trail follows along the Virgin River.

How fun!

Canyon Overlook

The main part of Zion has two roads - the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive and route 9, which goes from less than 4000 feet at the south entrance to almost 6000 feet at the east entrance.  Most of this climb is accomplished in a section of impressive switchbacks.  But the highlight of the road is a one mile tunnel that was built in 1927-1930.  Vehicles over 11'4" or 7'10" have to drive down the middle of the tunnel and since there are always RVs driving this road, that means the tunnel is one way.

We decided to take the car up to the Canyon Overlook which is just on the east side of the tunnel.  Our wait wasn't long and personally I wouldn't be comfortable with two way traffic even in the Saturn.

There is a 1/2 mile trail to the actual overlook with some climbing and interesting trail construction.

The water seepage on this rock face created a nice vertical garden.

The view at the end was awe inspiring.

Naturally, they all have names from the West Temple on the left to the Sentinel on the far right.  But Ron noticed that the Altar of Sacrifice, slightly right of center, has blood dripping down it.   By the way, although people have occupied this area for thousands of years, the names came from the Mormons who settled here in the 1860's.

On the way back to the car, I almost missed this little guy who blended so well into the rock.

And coming back down the switchbacks, I couldn't resist snapping pictures out the window.

One more.

Outside Zion National Park

We realized we were moving way too quickly when we hit southwest Utah and it was 90 degrees.  Oh, well, we're here now and will just have to deal with it.  We looked for our favorite parking spot about 10 miles west of Zion and the BLM has closed it since we were here last.  Bummer.  We did find another spot a few miles closer (37.17110,-113.08162) and after Ron checked it out on foot, he pronounced it doable.

Even from a distance, the first sight of Zion is breathtaking.

(Just ignore the bug splatters on the windshield.)

Since we were parked right at the trailhead for Coalpits Wash, we decided to try it in the morning before the temperature rose to unbearable.  Good thinking since the trail was mostly across open area.

After about 1 1/2 miles, we entered the canyon with some shade.

After having our snack, we decided to head back.  Maybe I should have told Ron I was taking his picture.

He paid me back though.  The only tricky sections of the trail went through some side washes.  He caught me doing my butt slide down one of the steep parts.

After the second night there, we decided to move into the park campground and find some shade.  In addition, we also found the campground deer who aren't at all fazed by humans.

And here's the view from our site in the South Campground.