Zion National Park 9/30/18

On my way to Zion National Park I saw a billboard for “Ho-made” pies and I couldn’t believe my eyes! They have ho’s making pies in Utah!! Later on in the ride I another such billboard (this one) which shows one of them ho’s who makes the pies and just had to stop and take a picture!! In UTAH!!

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Anyway, this is the leadup to entering Zion National Park, which I had to drive through to get to my campground.

These are pics of the campground, which was stunning because of the gigantic rocks surrounding it! This picture of the truck was one I texted to Liz to say, “Look how good of a job I did parking the truck! First try! Oh  - and look at the cool background too.” :-)

I went to the campground first because I could walk to a shuttle stop and leave the camper in place at my site.

And this is what you're waiting for...

This is one of my favorites, as is the first large picture above.

I loved this guy’s t-shirt! As much as I love vegetarian and vegan fare, I am a meat eater and always will be!

The path is one of the trails at that park that I decided to walk instead of taking the shuttle, though I picked up the shuttle at the next stop after that.

Those three are called the Three Patriarchs, but I don’t remember the story behind them.

I took about 15 photos to get this one of the rock climber. I zoomed in as closely as I could with my phone, which has not only distorted the photo a bit, but it also makes him look a lot closer and bigger than he did to me (which I guess is what zooming is for…)  :-)

If you look above the stop sign at about 2:00 you will see one of the shuttle buses, which gives an idea of the scale of the rocks. These pictures simply cannot do justice to the sheer magnitude of these rocks. And I’m calling them rocks because I don’t know what else to call them!

Vegetation

I am continually amazed and sometimes enthralled by the different types of vegetation in desert climates. Last year when I sent to the San Diego Zoo, I think I took as many photos of plants as I did of animals! The succulents there especially intrigued me, I just love succulents. But I digress..

To me, this first one looked like it was two different trees in one! This second one was referred to as “Cowboy Toilet Paper” by the guide at Bryce Canyon. Apparently, it’s really soft. It reminds me of Lambs Ears which is a plant we have at home that is also really soft (though I’ve never used it as toilet paper!).

The Virgin River

The truly amazing thing about this river is that it is responsible for carving out these rock formations! Look at this river!! Does it look capable of something so monumental? NO!! It looks like a tiny little river in comparison to those rocks. So never underestimate what perseverance can do!!