We left Long Beach and officially started our eastward journey home. Our first stop was going to be Zion National Park. We drove through four states, California, Nevada, Arizona and finally Utah. It was a long day; we reached Zion around 3pm and made a quick stop at the visitor’s center. Zion was Utah’s first national park and is approximately 232-square-miles, a desert oasis renowned for its massive cream, pink, and red sandstone cliffs, deep canyons, and the Virgin River.
It was amazing how many people were there for a Monday afternoon. The place was wall to wall people. We decided to forgo the 90-minute shuttle ride through the park and took the self-drive route. Neither of us felt like being trapped on a shuttle with a bunch of other folks and not have an escape. When you are self-drive, you are limited to a smaller portion of the park, but we were okay with that, having control of our own destiny was key for us 😁. The park did not disappoint, it was stunning 🤩 the photos and videos I took do not even come close to showing how magnificent it is. So many different terrains, colors, canyons, high peaks, beautiful flowers, and they have plenty of pull offs for scenic views and photo ops. Part of the route takes you thru the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel, this is 1.1 miles long engineering marvel and was completed in 1930. It’s a beautiful scenic route and links Zion to Byrce Canyon and the Grand Canyon. The route has lots of switchbacks and was a truly gorgeous drive, the end of the route brings you out to the East Entrance to the park. From there we headed on Route 89 toward our overnight stop in Kanab. This is a small town filled with history and another filming location for over 100 Western movies. A quick dinner and a good night’s sleep and we continued our eastbound journey the next morning.
Our next stop was in Grand Junction, CO to visit our good friends, Doug and Joanne. It was great catching up with them and we had a nice meal at Las Maria’s, a local favorite. Some tacos, enchiladas and a few margaritas and we were happy.
We were up and out at 7am, we found a Toyota dealer about 250 miles east and had made an appointment to have our car serviced, she was overdue and we were thankful they had availability for us. More to come tomorrow.
See you down the road.
Leave a Reply