Southwest Adventure Part 2

Day 1. Zion and Bryce

We loaded up in the van, all our bags stowed in the trailer, and took off from Vegas. After a quick restroom/snack/water bottle refill stop on a gas station, we drove into Zion National Park, Utah. Zion is Hebrew for refuge, what the first people who saw this place felt when they arrived. The cliffs are amazing, the canyons, Virgin River, and the colors in the rock face quickly had me in love. We, admittedly, had very little time to see any significant portion of it, but my Mom and my niece (my travel companions for this trip) chose what looked like a fairly moderate trail and set off. The Watchman Trail takes hikers up. And up. And up. You don't realize it right away, but if you turn around and look where you came from every so often, you realize that you're gaining in altitude.

A bit over an hour later and we reached the top of the trail. Now on top of a smallish cliff, overlooking the valley that we had hiked up from. A fantastic view, and well worth the sweat.

I'm a cactus person, so I very much enjoyed looking at the varieties of cactus and plants that we saw along the way. A few others from our small tour group also chose this trail, and most of them made it to the end. The return trip down wasn't too bad, just needed to watch where you put your foot to avoid turning an ankle. Bring water with you for these hikes. It's a dry environment.

Collared lizard. Just chillin on the side of the trail.

Waded into this cold stream (river? it was small) to

cool my hot, post-hike feetsies.

Back into the van to get to our next national park.

The drive was a good rest after our hike.

Bryce Canyon National Park. 

I had visited Bryce last year as a day tour, but wasn't at all upset to have to see it again. It was also later in the day compared to last year's mid day visit, so a change of colour on the hoodoos was wonderful to see. We were a bit worn out from the Zion climb, so we chose a considerably easier hike here.

Still a nice visit to this lovely place.

Steller's jay! It was squabbling with another jay. Must have been a turf war.

Back at our campsite.

Getting a quick tutorial about our tents.

Once they are set up we can enjoy a delicious BBQ supper at the campground.

Veggie option for me, of course.

All set up and ready for the night!

It was a bit chilly, so we used second sleeping bags as blankets.

I can't say I was super comfy lying on the ground 

(my hips and shoulders complain too much)

but I was warm enough and got some sleep.

The next morning, we took down our camp, loaded the van and

headed out on the road for Day 2.

👉