Zion and More

Hi all,
 On to Zion, we made the 25 mile or so drive up to Zion. The entire drive is scenic with red rock mountains along side.
 We planned to meet up with Tim and Renee again. They are also fulltimers from California who we worked with our first year in Custer. They are staying on the other side of the park so we met at the visitor center.
 The only way to tour Zion is by utilizing a shuttle system. They even use a free shuttle system in the town of Springdale on the edge of Zion as parking often fills early. The shuttles stop at about 9 major stops for trail heads or vistas of the famous red rock. They run pretty constant so the most you wait for the next one would be 15 minutes. We thought it a great way to see the park.

Views of Towers of the Virgin and Bridge Mountain 

Court of the Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Peaks

Virgin River

 Today we would just be taking most of the closer sights as Tim has been having a sore leg and actually Wendy and I were a bit bushed from our hiking at Kolob Canyon.
 They have some great hikes to take like Angels Landing a twisty climbing route and The Narrows through the Virgin River at the canyon entrance. Although we didn't get into any big hike we did a couple short ones and had a great day jumping on and off the shuttle at all the stops.

Lower Emerald Pool Trail

Renee, Tim & Ray

 Our next adventure was driving to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. It was a good 60 mile drive from Sand Hollow but with gorgeous views along the way time went fast.
 Coral Pink S. P. is really an off road paradise with over 1,200 acres of pink sand dunes of which 90%  open to off highway vehicles. They do rent utv's there and we were going to do a tour but the temps here were quite cool and we were not prepared for that. Oh well next time I guess.
 The pink sand is from eroded Navajo sandstone.

 We stopped at a visitor center in the nearby town of Kanab, we found out this was one of the most famous areas used  filming old western movies and series. They suggested a neat country road to drive that had some interesting points along the way. Outside Kanab about 10 miles we found Johnson Canyon Road. They gave us a map that had 16 interesting points along the 16 mile road. Most were on private lane but viewable from the road. We saw a couple arches, some Indian and cowboy writings in sandstone, and a old movie set used fro Gunsmoke.

Old Gunsmoke Movie set - 1955-1975

 Not yet done for the day Wendy and I made a stop at Pipe Spring National Monument on the route home. Pipe Springs was a famous watering post and a Mormon outpost. Brigham Young bought the claim to the land and a fortified stone ranch was built. It was nicknamed the Winsor Castle and the area was used to hold cattle that had been tithed to the church. It also was used as a hideout for polygamous wives.

East cabin

Winsor Castle

Water from the spring

great views on the drive back to the campground