From Death Valley, CA, we drove into Nevada and through the
north side of Las Vegas to get on I-15. East of the city we took the exit for Valley of Fire State Park which is adjacent
to the large complex of Lake Meade National Rec Area. After driving 18 miles
through a nothing-but-bristle- bush desert landscape, the sudden downturn of
the road into a valley of brilliantly red rock walls and monoliths was nothing
short of breathtaking. The campsites were tucked beside and under the red rock
buttes. The next morning, we drove the scenic loops through the rest of the
park and saw the extent of the fiery valley.
Every color of brown, red, orange and purple was layered in the rock
formations.
The next day we drove into Utah and Zion National Park where the massive walls of rock that border the
Virgin River are so majestic and so awe-inspiring that when I ran out of “Wow”
and “Holy Cow,” I smoothed out into a steady “om.” We snagged one of the last
available camp sites at South Campground. Watchman Campground was already full
when we arrived – at 2:30 in the afternoon! Even after it snowed during the
night (one of only 5 or 6 times a year it snows at street level in the park,
according to our bus driver) and we decided not to hike in the 34 degrees on
slippery trails, our ride through the canyon on the shuttle bus gave us a good
taste of the glory of this national park.
If you drive anything bigger than a car and you want to take
the road east out of Zion, you must buy a permit to go through the 1930s-built
tunnel, which we did. Then tunnel traffic from both directions is stopped and
you can drive safely through alone. Once through, we drove north and east on
roads that were just a bit snowy at higher elevations until we got to the
entrance of Bryce National Park,
where there was quite a bit of old as well as new snow. Plus, it was cold at
7000 feet. We shopped at the Visitor’s Center, and we stopped and marveled at
the depth of Sunset Canyon with all its rows and groupings of HooDoos (columns.)
The word HooDoo comes from a similar sounding Paiute word meaning scary, which
they may well look in the dark under a full moon, but in the sunshine, under a
blue sky, those rock HooDoos looked rather cheerful, I thought. (cont.)
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| Valley of Fire |
Zion National Park
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| Bryce National Park |
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