Our trip home - 26 April 2016. Drive: Page, AZ - Zion - Cathedral Gorge, Nevada

Page > Zion National Park  > Cathedral Gorge
             (270 miles today, 605 miles total from Lake Havasu)

Tuesday, it is overcast when I put the coffee on and then take the dogs out for their pee in the Walmart Parking Lot.  There are a LOT of RVs in this parking lot. I count 14 plus a couple of big trucks have joined our midst as well.
     We are heading for Reno, Nevada, but have no idea whether we will make it today or not, as we plan to go thru Zion National Park, which will definitely mean a stop or two along the way.
     

Darlene is up early as well and together we get everything ready and before you know it, we are on the road at 7:10 AM.

Total trip to date, not counting side trips

      2 Hours later we enter Zion National Park.  The cost for a vehicle is $30.00.  Now comes the interesting part where we have 2 problems.

          1) We are high.... 12' 9"  so we need to pony up another $15.00 for an "escort" thru the 2nd tunnel.  What they do is they stop traffic from coming thru the other side because the tunnel is only 13' 1" high at the middle (and lower at the sides), which means we have to drive down the centre of the second tunnel.  There are other high vehicles so all traffic is only 1 way thru there, but only the really high guys have to pay extra.
          2) We are long..... 43' plus we have a Tow Vehicle.  The problem here is that there are a lot of sharp corners thru the park which means we have to cross over the centre line to make it unless we do not tow the car..... No problem to disconnect the car and Darlene can drive it thru.  (I thought for a minute they were going to make me pay separate for the car now, lol, but they didn't).

     Zion is very pretty right now, (I think it is quite pretty always, lol), but a tad chilly as the elevation is around 6000 ft. above sea level.  We have to stop a couple of times for traffic and tourists, as well as the second tunnel has rangers that make you stop and ensure you know how to drive thru the tunnel..... DOWN THE MIDDLE.....
heh heh.

The roads are paved red,
to match the hills

     At the other end of Zion there is camping, so we pull over in the small town on the side of the road where parking is allowed.  Our plan is to drive back thru the park so that Darlene can enjoy it and then switch drivers and Darlene can drive back while I enjoy the sights.
This is because when we first drove thru we were too busy driving to enjoy anything else!
     As we enter the park again the Ranger tells us of a pet friendly trail just up the road by the campsite, which is fully booked up.

Later in the year there are big
waterfalls throughout the park

The dogs were anxious to get out for a walk so we stopped there and took them for a walk. On the way back, along the river, Nikko started to favour his left front paw, so Darlene picked him up and carried him back to the car.  Later that day she finally found a 1/2 inch piece of wood or seed had penetrated between his toes making it sore for him to walk.
     We drove just to the second tunnel and then turned around, as the tunnel is only one way, and is very very long.

Yes, there are cactus in Zion!

     When we got back to where the Motorhome was, we found some A__Hole from Nevada had parked his car within inches of the front of the motorhome, making it difficult to get out, as someone was also parked close to our back, although we did have some room there.
     TJ directed me back so that I could get out of the tight squeeze.  Before we left however, I did leave a note on his window thanking him for leaving me no room to leave and letting him know what I thought of him.

     After we left Zion, we continued west until we hit I-15 and headed north on that until we came to I-56 where we elected to head west on our route to Reno..... Hwy 56 is quiet, a good road, but not that scenic. We thought we might have a long way between fuel stops so we topped up the tank just outside of Cedar City. (82 gal. = $200.00) and continued on our way.
      Darlene had been checking the maps and there was a place called "Cathedral Gorge" that claimed to have a state park and some slot canyons, so we decided to try that spot out for the night.

       It is a nice campground, and was pretty well full.  There were some sights dedicated (pull thru) for big rigs but smaller trailers were parked in them as I guess they couldn't be bothered to back into a smaller sight, even though there were signs posted everywhere to leave them for larger rigs.  We thought we might have to continue on but there was a handicapped site that the sign said we could use if all others were full, so we took it..... Turns out it was the nicest sight in the place lol, as it was paved underneath and was the only spot that had 50 amp service!  Close by were the washrooms and showers (free) as well as a tetherball for TJ.  3 minutes down the road were the slot canyons, which we went over to explore as soon as the rain cloud moved on.

     The "slot canyons" are pretty neat as they are narrow passages etched in the hardened mud like hills here.

They do not compare with Antelope Canyon, but they are cheap and you can go wherever you like..... At one point we were quite deep in one (very quiet in these as the walls are high and blanket sound), when suddenly a large raven overhead (which we were not aware of being watched) suddenly gave a loud warning cry.... We all jumped and TJ gave a big screech and bolted for the way we had come in.  It was pretty funny as the raven had a nest close by and didn't want us getting any closer.

 

   We have a big day tomorrow so were in bed fairly early after watching a movie on Netflix. (Ahhh, now this is "roughing" it, lol).