Day 60 - Zion National Park

Today's adventure in Zion National Park was the Overlook Trail. It started next to the eastern entrance to the mile-long tunnel and was about one mile long with only 165' of elevation gain. And was classified as a "moderate" trail. I think what made it moderate was the steep drop-offs adjacent to the trail.

In a couple of places, you can see where there used to be anchors bolted to the rocks for chains to hold onto while traversing some of these narrow sections. This nice shady overhang was just past a section where boards and railing were bolted to the side of the cliff.

At the end of the trail, you are rewarded with a great view of the valley from the edge of a near-vertical dropoff. The overlook should be visible from the road climbing up to the long tunnel west entrance. Tunnel windows may be visible on the left side as I was able to see them from this vantage point.

Dom and Martha took a couple of scenic side trails but at least they found the main trail to the overlook. There were so many paths and trails that it was easy to get diverted.

Here is a view of the wooden bridge hanging off the side of the cliff in the middle of the picture. There were a few other narrow sections but they were still at least a foot wide. Loose sand and some water on some of the rocky surfaces added to the feeling of slipping.

Here is Bridget at the end of the trail which are steps cut into the rock. I think that coming down the steps may be the most challenging part of the trail (for me) as it's difficult to see the steps clearly with bifocals. All in all, this was a great walk and the view from the overlook is worth the short walk in.

Day 59 - Zion National Park

Today, we drove into the park around 8:30am. Being a Monday, it was a lot less crowded than when we were here a few weeks ago. I believe that was a Sunday. We met up with Dom & Martha along with her relatives John and Renee at the South Campground. When I had looked at the online reservations for this campground, it said very limited space for large RVs. It looks like we would fit into most of the sites though getting level would have been challenging.

Around 9 we got onto the shuttle bus and rode it to the end of the line to go along the River Trail towards the Narrows. We had no plans on hiking the Narrows as the entire trail is in the water. Someone mentioned that the water was 38°F and is about 30" deep along the trail. Not doing that. As it was, there was a cold breeze and the sun was not shining in the canyon.

We then took the shuttle bus to the Grotto which is also the start of the trail to Angel's Landing. One of these days I'll take that hike. We took the Grotto trail which led down to the lodge at the next shuttle bus stop.

This was also the beginning of the trail to the Lower Emerald Pools. This was another paved trail to an overhang with water dripping down onto the trail. There were some decent views up the canyon along the trail but the emerald pools themselves were a little disappointing. Not very scenic.

The water dripping off of the cliff was looked pretty cool and reminded me of Weeping Rock here at Zion. The trail to Weeping Rock was closed probably for maintenance. It is another paved trail and has some pretty steep sections.

We ended up walking just under six miles for the morning. We headed back to the RV park to check up on the dogs and have lunch. Maybe it's also time to visit the hot tub again.

Day 58 - Virgin, UT

Really “glamping” at the Zion River RV Resort. The pool and hot tub are behind me and the sites are concrete and level. There is grass on the door side. Right now behind me, they are serving home-made ice cream. Pretty nice. We are here for several days and plan on going into Zion tomorrow and Tuesday.

I took advantage of the level concrete pad to install the Snap-Pads. You put some liquid dish soap along the top edge and manually lower the leveling jacks onto them. They then snap onto the feet of the jack. They add an inch to the jacks and are made from recycled tires. They look to be pretty well made. 

Day 57 - Downtown Las Vegas, NV - TT

At 4:00pm, it was 79°F. No wind, clear blue sky in a packed RV park. And the swimming pool was completely empty (except for me). Am I missing something?

Today’s adventure was grocery shopping at Walmart. Later in the afternoon, we went to Fremont Street.

Pretty crowded. We stayed for one of the light shows and walked the length of the Fremont Street Experience. In the next picture, you can see a couple of people on the zip line that runs over Fremont Street.

I read on the Internet that the Paradise Buffet was the best on Fremont Street. It was steak night and it was the first properly prepared steak I’ve had in any restaurant on this trip. They had maybe half a dozen kinds of sushi and good lox plus the other fare at any Las Vegas buffet. Decent enough for the $15.99 price.