January 7-16, 2010

We are back in the Mile High City of Denver. Dan and Gail picked us up at the airport and we headed to Niwot to spend the night with them. The next morning we prepared the 5th wheel for our next 9,000+ mile adventure. In the afternoon, we drove down to Littleton to spend some time with Eric and Holly. They took us out to dinner at the Grand Lux for my birthday. It was a great meal and a fun evening.

 On Saturday, Bob took Eric to the IMAX theater to see Avitar. Holly and I opted to go shopping. We said our good-byes that evening since we planned to hit the road early.

We woke Sunday morning to sunshine, a beautiful day to travel. We were on the road to Utah by 9 am, stopping in a little town called Beaver for the night.

On Monday, we had hoped to camp at Moab and go to the Arches National Park, but there was too much snow. Since we wanted to hike, we opted to continue south to Zion National Park. We arrived at the south entrance in the early afternoon.

Watchman was the only campground open and it was nearly empty. We found a great spot on the Virgin River surrounded by majestic towers and cliffs of red rock.

After setting up camp, we hiked along the Virgin River over to the Visitor Center. Back at camp, it was time to relax and watch the light change as the sun set.

The next morning we enjoyed breakfast outside before exploring the park. We drove the Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway, up switchbacks and through a tunnel originally built in the 1920’s. Since the tunnel was built for 1920-30 model cars, today’s huge RV rigs need to be escorted through with a pilot car.

Next we enjoyed the 6 mile scenic drive along the Zion Canyon floor ending at the Temple of Sinawava. We took a 2 miles hike along the Virgin River along the bottom of a narrow canyon. On the way back, we took another 4 mile hike on the Emerald Pools trails.

We met another couple from Scotland and enjoyed a nice chat with them. Toward the end of our hike, we saw several deer and some wild turkeys.

When we got to the 5th wheel, we had some hot stew waiting for us in the crock pot.

We hope to return to Zion next fall to do more hiking and exploring. In the meantime, we decided to get on the road to Mesquite, NV to see our friends, Marnie and Chuck Bartolini. It was a lovely drive through St. George, Utah, the corner of Arizona, and into Nevada. It is a unique part of the country and we marveled at the rock formations, as we followed the Virgin River all the way.