Moab to Zion

Still in Moab~

It’s Sunday. I went for a fantastic hike this morning into a canyon. The trail is called Negro Bill Canyon and it’s two miles, so four miles round trip. It was nice and cool in the morning and perfect for a hike. There’s a little stream through the canyon so the hike was like a jungle for a good part of the way. Not what you expect to find in a desert area. The hike ended at Morning Glory Natural Bridge; the sixth largest in the United States.

In the afternoon I went for a raft ride. It was calm so it wasn’t exactly white water rafting, but it was fun! And, it was beautiful on the river. The Colorado River that is, through Red Rock Canyon. One of the guys on the boat took pictures and will be emailing them, so I’ll post them once I get them. I didn’t want to take my camera. The rafting trip was thanks to a friend of Gerda and Kristina’s who lives in Moab and owns a river adventure company. It’s good to know people!

Monday~ Up early and getting ready to leave and there’s a new guy at the hostel who won’t leave me alone. He was actually waiting for me at the bathroom door when I finished my shower. Creepy! He desperately wanted to go with me to Canyonlands~ yikes! I told him I was going to the south end; I went to the north end : ) Canyonlands was beautiful; I wish I had gone to the south side on my way in to Utah. Oh well, next time! I didn’t do any hiking, just driving and lots of picture taking and then off to see the next thing…. Lots of nothingness in Utah! Vast expanses of nothing for miles. Then as I got closer to Capitol Reef the landscape started to change and become more colorful. There were formations (rock? Sand?) which were really cool. Like sand castles built by a child on the beach. Capitol Reef was awesome! It’s hard to believe though that people actually lived in that area. It’s just so desolate. Oh, and as you drive through the desolate areas, you’ll eventually come to a sudden area of green and realize it’s because there’s a stream. I didn’t do any hiking in Capitol Reef either. The desert areas are beautiful to see, but not very inviting to me.

Escalante Grand Staircase was next on the drive through Utah. It too was amazing~ again very desolate, but very beautiful. Take a look at the pictures. I also drove through Dixie National Forest, which was very different than the rest of the landscapes. Trees! I love trees! I drove down a dirt road to a reservoir and there were lots of great places to camp for free! It was a beautiful wooded drive for miles. But, it was too early to set up camp. So, on I went through Escalante and on to Bryce Canyon. I just did a quick drive through Bryce since I’ve been there before. I left Bryce and hoped to find a campsite on the way to Zion National Park. I didn’t. I got all the way to Zion and the campgrounds were full. It’s a long drive into the park and they don’t want you to camp anywhere except the campgrounds so I pulled into the visitors center and went to sleep in my car. It was about 11:30 pm. At 1:00 am I was awakened by a park ranger knocking on my window and told that I couldn’t sleep there. Bummer! I said “but the campgrounds are full!”. He told me where I could go just down the road. That’s where I am now and I can’t fall back to sleep, so I’m writing!

I’m looking forward to exploring the park tomorrow….