Every Day Is A New Amazing Day At Zion

Rock formations that look man made are actually created by Mother Nature.

This is only the beginning of yesterdays hike that was switchback after switch back. called "Walter's Wiggles", they ascend to Angle Landing which is the chains walk with 1400 foot drop. Nope, not Joy!
Instead we turned left to the West Rim Trail for our view.

Oh, Jen called to say "Hi" so we had a respite stop to chat. We got the stink eye from a few other hikers as we stood and chatted.

Note how close Joy is to the edge( 1500 feet down). Thanks. Bonnye for the inspiration to slowly face my fear of heights. Angels Landing chain path is that narrow knife edge just to my right. Nope, still not that brave.

Cool rock formations. 

There are only 170 California Condors in the wild and we got to see #99 with his 9 foot wing span.

AHH finally back to the bottom. 98 degrees but at least it's flat!

East of Zion

The hills and mountains on the east side of Zion are called "slick rock". They look like gigantic mud piles! Or, Shulmpy cupcake frosting.

This one is called "Checkerboard Mesa"

It seems that mountain goats hang out on checkerboard on a regular basis. We decided that they are assigned shifts so that they will always be there for animal seeking tourists.

Right after going thru the mile long scary tunnel, we stumbled on a slot canyon within its first 10,000 years of formation.

Gary's favorite "Mountain Woman"

This hike was just opposite the tunnel and had some pretty hairy look downs!

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park--Just outside of Zion is really fascinating.

Lots of movies filmed here. Also new generation sports.

They rent sand boards and sand sled as well as ATV's at this 3700acre park where Dune Buggy trails are the main event. This little girl is about Kaias age and this was her first time. It actually slides quite slowly.

We LOVE Zion Nation Park

We are having a wonderful here. The views are postcard perfect everywhere, the weather is beautiful- warm and dry with a cooling breeze . Lots of hiking on well maintained trails many of which are paved. This is the view just along the shuttle road. ( no cars allowed in season)

We went to the west side to Kolob canyon for a hike.

We took a hike that started like this

Evolved into this along a creek bed

and ended at this ginormous double arch of sandstone called Double Arch Alcove. great place for lunch!

We took a ranger tour on the shuttle bus and stopped at view after view like this one. By the way- the view from our campsite is almost identical to this one- on all sides! Umm $9/night cause we are "seniors".

These guys camped out on the rock face during their climb!!!

This is the Virgin River Canyon near the beginning of the creek tour in the Narrows. We passed cause Joy and Gary don't like wading in 50 degree water. The Virgin River is the one that carved the canyons at Zion and what a beautiful task she accomplished!

Only the risk of ferocious wildlife entering our campsite keep us wary.

A SIGHTING IN LAS VEGAS!

We didn't stay at the Motel 6 this time.

The pool area (11 acres) was better but we were so busy we only got there for two brief visits.

After touring the strip, Gary soon learned that hotels have more interesting themes to offer than a good pool area. His favorite is New York New York. Nah- we skipped the roller coaster.

Michelle-- we went to the Golden Nugget to check it out. Joy and the Concierge say, "Come on down!"

Elk Seen at the Grand Canyon!

Yup, we made it to the Grand Canyon. It does look like it's pictures.

Places having to do with the Sky and the Earth

We spent the last few days visiting Meteor Crater, Petrified Forest National Park, The Painted Desert, Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Oak Creek canyon, Slip Rock State Park and Sedona. Whew! Sounds like a lot but one site flowed easily to another.
On the way from Chaco to Flagstaff we passed Meteor Crater.
50,000 years ago a meteor the size of a football field landed and made a very big hole in the ground.

This has filled up with dirt over the centuries but it was originally 750 feet deep . It mostly vaporized on contact . The visitor center had a piece on display.

We then passed The Petrified Forest National Park which had lots of beautiful scenery and huge pieces of petrified wood.

The next day we walked around Flagstaff and then visited Lowell Observatory. Lowell Observatory is a long standing working observatory with lots of different telescopes. More interesting to see than to describe. This next photo is the actual telescope used to discover Pluto.

Today we drove through beautiful Oak Creek Canyon and Slip Rock State Park on the way to Sedona. Sedona is a unique and lovely town with views, shops and restaurants galore.

Oak Creek Canyon

Sedona center and Joy's new jacket

Grand Canyon Tomorrow!

Wonderfully Remote Chaco Canyon

Few tourists go to Chaco Canyon because the the roads to it are very rough dirt and gravel. We went about 5-10 miles per hour for 13 miles on pure washboard dirt going in praying that the trailer would hold together. We left by the other 21 mile dirt road because we were told it was  it was "much better". I had less washboard  but lots of steep hills so  creeping our way up hills in deep sand using 4 wheel drive and saying, " OMG,There's no cell phone coverage here and if we don't make this next hill we have to try to back down!!"
     The park itself is spectacular. The Chaco Indian culture thrived here from about 850 to 1200 AD. They built large community complexes having hundreds of rooms and amazing stone workmanship. The wooden beams in the picture are original! They carried full tree trunks, and stone for the structures up to 50 miles without benefit of beasts of burden or the wheel!
    The desert was beautiful. The total silence of the remote night desert was nourishing to the soul.

This is the view from our campsite at Chaco Canyon

They used several masonry styles that are very detailed and beautiful

There are multiple large and smaller round Kivas. They really don't know what they were used for but do know that they were covered with domed roofs.

The canyon walls are quite unstable and the park service measures there separated pieces of wall carefully. Yes, they do occasionally collapse.

There are petroglyphs along the walls.