October 13, 2014 Monday  Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park

We got a good night's rest and awoke early to get started for the two hour drive to Bryce Canyon National Park.  The highway to Bryce takes you through the heart of Zion so we got to see additional parts of the park.  It was early in the am and, as we learned, the hues change all day as the old Sol travels across the sky.

 And there were more tunnels; one was over a mile long!

As we drove through the twists and turns and tunnels of Zion Missie started telling us about an animal she could see walking along the side of a mountain we were approaching.   As she described what her eyes were seeing we realized she was looking at a Mountain Lion!!  Wow! This was a first! We confirmed later with a Ranger that yes, indeed, there are Mountain Lions in the park.  Score a big one for Missie!

We did not get a photo of Missie's lion but we started seeing other wildlife.  This one is difficult to see but there is a Bighorn Sheep right in the middle of this photo.  This sheep was on the side of a mountain and quite a distance from us but we could make him out.

Mr. Bighorn Sheep

But shortly after we took the above photo we spotted more mountain sheep.  One on top of a point and the others in the valley below us.

Great photo by Missie!  And, thank you, Ms. Bighorn Sheep, for this wonderful pose.

As we left Zion we traveled along the highway in Utah.  For several weeks, we've been seeing the colors change.

Aspen and Fir by Missie

Before arriving at Bryce we went through another park.  The Red Canyon was just a taste of what was to come.

Finally we arrive at Bryce  Canyon National Park!

What we all learned is that many of the parks we've been in were created by a sea that split our continent.  The sea rose and fell many times, each time leaving deposits of mostly dissolved limestone.  Then a large area, covering several states (Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico) and called the Colorado Plateau, rose the land. The former sea beds, with many layers of sediment, were now exposed to snow, rain, & wind erosion.  As the loose sediments were carried away by the erosion, what was left is what you see in Bryce Canyon. 

These structures are called Hoodoo's.  As they wear away, arches, spires, and other shapes are formed.  One of the most famous is called The Natural Bridge, which has been the subject of many magazine articles, brochures, etc.

The Natural Bridge

Bryce Canyon is really not a canyon.  It is a plateau that runs along a parallel.  You travel down the road and have stops along the way to view different sights.  The plateau runs about 20 miles long. One interesting area at Bryce Point is called The Wall of Windows.  You can see why in the photo below. 

The Wall of Windows

Inspiration Point

An Inspired Elizabeth Cooper!

Lib getting some inspiration at Bryce Point

The park gets its name from a chap named Bryce who built a cabin on top of the plateau where he and his wife had 14 children.  He was sent to the area by the Mormon Church to create a Mormon Community.  He got one started and, as duty called, he left to somewhere else to start another community.  His cabin remained and was known as Bryce's Cabin which morphed into the name given the entire area.  

Sunrise Point

We finished our tour late in the day and took the two hour drive back to our RV Park in Virgin, Utah.  We tried to compare Zion and Bryce but its hard to do because they are so different.  Zion has beautiful canyons and walls of salmon and red.  Bryce has these incredible Hoodoos.  One lasting part of Bryce is that we now ask each other: "Hoodoo?"  and reply "Idoo!"

Tomorrow we are off to the Grand Canyon.

Now, "Idoo" got to get off this computer and get started on another day.  We are now into our third day in Phoenix and I am trying to catch up on this blog.  Missie flew home yesterday and we are sad she is gone.   Maggie sat by Missie's side for days and she really misses her buddy.

Off for the day! 

October 10, 2014 Friday  Miss Arrives in Vegas!

We met Missie at the airport and her flight was ahead of schedule.  No problems; luggage came through and we're off!

We stopped by Whole Foods to get some provisions (including large quantities of wine).  They do have a deal at six bottles so we had to be economical and take advantage of the deal.

Back to Cream Puff.  We clean up and get ready for seeing The Strip.  We have to open one of those bottles of wine before we go!

This is a step down for Miss from last week's New York Times photo but she still has her shoes off!

This is Missie's first encounter with Vegas so The Strip is a must.  Lib and I came here several times when we lived in Arizona. Lost money every time but that's The Strip.  We were here seven years ago for our anniversary to see Celine and couldn't believe the change.  But, now we see there is even more change.  We had never heard of City Center!

We start out at Bellagio where Lib and Miss hit it big on the slots.  They started out with $20.00 and built it to $105.00.  Then we hit Roulette where we quickly lost $100.00 and that's always been our limit.  So for a total of $20.00 we spent 2 hours gambling and got 6 free drinks.  What a deal?

Missie and Lib: High Rollers!

One thing about Vegas; the food is good.  We had dinner in Bellagio's and then we took off for Ceasar's Palace and The Venetian.

After dinner we watched the water show at Bellagio

Paris Las Vegas

Inside the Venetian at Little Venice

Back to Cream Puff, a Maggie walk and to bed.

October 11, Saturday  Drive to Zion, Utah

We had a nice ride to Zion with so many beautiful views including riding through a mountain on I-15.

Interstate 15 from Las Vegas to Zion, Utah via a corner of Arizona

Soon we began to see sights that were a hint of things to come in Zion

It was only about a  two and a half hour drive from Las Vegas to Zion.

We arrived at our RV park and found it to be nice place with trees and grass areas for Maggie.  Lib and Missie went for a walk on the Virgin River and Ron met other RVers in the hot tub!  More pics to come as soon as we get cell service.  We watched some of the ball games.  Mississippi State and Ole Miss look tough.  Auburn lost their first game and Bama barely got by the Hawgs.  Interesting and different season in the SEC.  Dinner salad at home and to bed.

October 12, 2014  Sunday

Up early, showers, Maggie walk and we are off to Zion National Park.  We had been told to get there before 10:00am or the parking lots would be full.  We were there at 9:30 and got a place but there were large crowds all day.

Our "elderly card" works its magic again and we bypass the $25.00 per car charge and enter the park. First visit is the Visitor Center where we get advice from the Rangers on what to do and where to go to do it!  Our first hike is The Riverside Walk, a 2.2 mile walk.  This is a reasonable hike that takes you down to The Narrows.  The Narrows is a place where the Virgin River made a vertical cut through the canyon, 2000 ft. and the walls are only 20 yards across.  But to get to this section, you have to either have waders or take off your shoes and wade through mid-thigh, cold water.  We stopped just before doing this.  

We are in a canyon and we caught this view of the moon going down just as we started our hike.

The Canyon walls are a salmon color

Millions of years ago this area was covered by a shallow sea; the same one that covered the central U.S. from the Gulf coast to Canada.  As the sea would build and recede it would leave layers of sediment that built up.  Afterwards, the rains and winds brought erosion that formed the canyon.  The river that runs through the canyon is the Virgin River.  It is a small stream for us southerners but it has razor teeth over  thousands of years. 

Lib and Miss on the walk to The Narrows pass under a rock overhang

Miss taking photo of water markings on the rocks

Elderly couple still asking if there are any coupons

You gotta stop and smell them flowers

Animal life; No bears!  I can handle these critters.

Dancing and singing on the river.

We finally make it to the start of the Narrows; from here you have to start walking IN the river.  We decide lunch at The Lodge sounds better.

The Lodge; a Nice Place to stay but reservations are a year in advance.

A nice lunch in the sunshine.

And a Mule Deer walked right by us at lunch!

After lunch we take another hike to the Emerald Pool, a waterfall

Best Friends!

Lib and Miss take another hike, Pa'rus Trail,while Ron runs some errands.  This is a hike from Canyon Junction back to the Visitors Center.  Ron runs back to Cream Puff to retrieve Maggie and off to the one grocery/hardware store, SOL, in Springdale, Utah to buy firewood for a campfire and an axe to make the kindling!  We are "off" tonight...gotta cook dinner, get up early and off to Bryce Canyon.  We will update this post with more pics from Missie's "professional" camera later.

"Off."

October 8, 2014 Wednesday  North Yosemite Park and  Onward to Nevada

We awoke to a clear blue-sky.  No white smoke nor could we smell any smoke.  We talked to our friends from Phoenix who had told us they were stopped going out of the park as the rangers were handing out road-closed messages and alternative route maps due to the forest fire.  They said it took them about an hour to get out of the park because everyone had to wait at the exit to receive information about the fire.  We JUST missed all this by minutes yesterday.

Our Phoenix friends had no new news about the fire.  But, they had decided to go west and spend a few days in Carmel and Monterey Bay instead of another day in the park.  I decided to drive to a nearby restaurant that was bustling with breakfast business.  I had no trouble getting help when I walked in, map in hand, and asked: "Anyone know anything about the fire."  People love to talk when they are drinking coffee.  What I learned was that Highway 140 was closed and it runs southwest of the main part of the park.  We wanted to travel along Highway 120, a west to east route that is north of the valley floor.  I was assured that 120 was open.  The only problem, you get on 120 where it intersects with 140.   So, we took the chance and took off.  Fortunately, it was exactly as the coffee drinkers said.  Signs closed off the road to our right, Highway 140, but the road was open to 120.

Highway 120 across Yosemite National Park is similar to many of the roads we find around the parks.  Narrow, winding, sharp curves, with grades up and down! Also, there are usually 20-somethings following right on your rear end as if they may be able to pass.  Sure!  But, we do pull over frequently at pull-outs and let the 20-somethings scream by.  By age 50 they will realize they need to slow down and enjoy where they are instead of thinking about where they are headed.  I think my parents called that being mature.

Just as we make the turn, Lib catches smoke from the fire below us.  This was all we saw of it and we were thankful for this!

You can just see the smoke, through the trees, in the valley

You don't want to go over the side of this road!

We rode through thick woods with giant trees for several miles.  We have been lucky that we've been seeing the color change for a few weeks now.  Even though this area is in severe drought, you still have the color change where there is foliage.  Continuing on, we begin to break out of the woods and see the huge granite outcroppings.

We stopped at Olmsted Point.  See the sights below...

The back side of Half Dome.  You can see the other side from the valley floor where we were yesterday.

This photo shows where the glacier made a smooth surface of the granite as it slowly scraped along the earths surface

Fiona and Cream Puff parked at Olmsted Point

There are several small lakes along the roadside.  Tuolumne Meadows is a beautiful sight. Supposedly you can see wildlife in the meadows but the best time is at dawn and sunset.  We were there for neither.

Those are granite rocks in the foreground.  Granite is everywhere; large and small pieces

Ellery Lake is at the east end of the park

Soon we are out of the park.  It was a beautiful 50 mile drive.  Now, I'm so smart, I've figured out a way to go south toward Las Vegas by using some California State highways.  Well, this was good and bad.  Good in that we saw some incredible scenery and had an unusual driving experience.  Bad in that, for many miles, we felt like we were on the moon in terms of isolation.  Secondly, bad in that we had an unusual driving experience!

Some of the colors along U. S. Highway 395

Highway 395 was beautiful and then we turned onto CA 168.  As soon as we turned to the east I told Lib, "I think we are going to have to go over those mountains ahead!"  What seemed like a simple little State Highway, was a trek across the Sierra Nevada mountain range!  We would finally make it up and over a mountain, relieved to see a valley below but, in the distance, another mountain!  This went on most of the afternoon.  We tried to get some pics.

Coming over one mountain and, ahead, another!

Talk about isolation!  Can you see the road in the valley?  Other cars were rare.  Look at the mountains in the distance...we had been over all of them!

At this point I became a bit alarmed.  I was constantly monitoring Fiona's vital signs.  I sure didn't want to have a breakdown out here.  Forget cell signals.  I could only envision sitting on the side of the road with a broken down vehicle and Clint Eastwood, smoking that little cigar, riding up on horseback.  It looked just like one of those spaghetti western scenes.  

Now what replaced this anxiety of isolation was the anxiety brought on by this sign as we neared the top of yet another mountain...

What?  One lane road!  This is a State Highway! It would be bad enough on a county road but a State Highway!

While there was little traffic there was traffic...sometimes a speeding 18 wheeler.  What was worse, as we approached the one lane, we could see it was really a narrow piece of road between two rock walls.  We both said something akin to a prayer about hoping there was no one coming our way and kept going.  This is what we soon saw.

Note the brake marks on the road.  I suppose this is what you do when you spot another vehicle coming at you!  Fortunately, we made it through!

Now you may be wondering why, if we were under such duress, would we be taking pictures? For this, we have to give our boating buddies, Todd and Joy Greer, credit.  We learned, if the situation is not really life threatening (OK, maybe some guesswork here), they would often take a photo to remember the event.  On one of our first trips together, we had sailed across the Gulf from Pensacola to Clearwater, Florida.  When we pulled up to the dock, Joy got her hand in between the boat and a piling.  This is not good when the boat weighs several thousand pounds and is moving.  Joy fell prostrate on the deck, rolling in pain.  My immediate  thoughts were "ambulance?" "Hospital?" "Broken arm"???  But all these negative thoughts subsided when Joy looked up and said "Don't stand there, get the camera!"  We continued to do that the next quarter century so its now part of our DNA. Lib had the camera out and was "at ready."  By the way, about 500 feet out of the one-lane, between- the-rocks road, we met a 20 something, speeding along toward us.  Wheww!  That was close!

By the way, it didn't hurt that Todd is an MD and had ice on her hand within a minute.  A day later I was swinging Joy around a dance floor by that hand.  She survived AND we had pictures!

Finally, we reached another U.S. Highway, 95, and the road was much more normal and had traffic. We decided not to try to get all the way to Las Vegas.  Beatty, Nevada looked like it may be large enough to have an RV Park.  This was the first time we had traveled without reservations but, as long as you are not near a National Park, reservations this time of year aren't that essential.  We had our choice of three parks.  We chose the Death Valley RV Resort.  Yes, its near the entrance to Death Valley National Park but they had several vacancies.

We got parked and called Missie.  All is  "go" for picking her up at the Las Vegas airport on Friday! We are very excited about having our bud with us.

On to Las Vegas tomorrow!