Zion NP, Kodachrome Basin & Snow Canyon, UT – Great Red Rocks!

October 7-19, 2007 - From Goblin Valley we took the gorgeous scenic

byway along Route 12 through Torrey, Capitol Reef National Park, and

Escalante to Kodachrome Basin State Park.  Like all the Utah state park

campgrounds, this one was lovely.  There was a flock of chukars (birds

closely related to the quail) that

wandered about the grounds happily

taking food from my hand.

We hiked the Panorama Point View trail,

soaking in the immense redrock

formations.  Several had cute names,

including Ballerina Leg, which truly

looked like a ballerina's leg.

Sandstone is very soft, and we found

a huge sandstone rock that other visitors had

rubbed.  It was fun to put your hand in the handprint

in the rock and rub.  The rock would granulate into

sand beneath your fingertips.

From Kodachrome Basin we headed over

to Zion National Park.  Because we were

towing the trailer and we were 52 feet from

end to end, we opted to approach the park

from the west side rather than taking the

really cool twisting road in from the east.  So we didn't see the

amazing rock formations that flank the roads on the eastern side.

However, once we arrived at Zion we took an exquisite bike ride along

the bike path that leads into the park.  The road into the main canyon

is closed to motorized vehicles, and we thrilled to the mammoth cliffs

on either side of us as we rode deep into the canyon.

There was an organized bike

ride going through Zion a few

days after we did our bike

ride.  It would be fun to be

part of a large crowd of

cyclists taking over this pretty

road through the park, but we

enjoyed the solitude of riding

by ourselves beneath the

towering spires.  We had a

perfect day with warm

temperatures, clear blue

skies and lots of flowers in

bloom.

We were continuing to press on

southwards, barely staying ahead

of the winter weather behind us.  At

Snow Canyon State Park we found

another delightful campground

where we tucked ourselves right up

against the redrocks.  We rode our

bikes on the beautiful park road

and looped through some pretty

new masterplanned neighborhoods

on the outskirts of St. George.

At last it was time to leave

Utah.  We decided we would

return in the Spring of 2008,

as we had barely touched

upon the areas we wanted to

see.  In the meantime,

however, the cold was

forcing us out, and we drove

south to the outskirts of Las

Vegas, Nevada, where we

found the spectacular Valley

of Fire State Park.