trip overview, part 3
May. 14th, 2015 11:27 pmThursday morning we went to breakfast at the restaurant next door, then went off to Zion. We drove all the way in from the west side of the park, through the slickrock, through the tunnel, down the big switchbacks, to the visitor center. We caught a shuttle into the canyon. We got off at the first stop, thinking it would be the Court of the Patriarchs viewpoint, but there was nothing there. We walked down to the river anyway. Ten minutes later, the next bus stopped, and we soon got out at Court of the Patriarchs. Then a stop at the Lodge while we decided where to go next. We went all the way up to Temple of Sinawava. We took the mile-long walk up to the entrance to the Narrows. Then we rode back down to the Lodge where we had lunch in the nice restaurant.
After lunch we did the Emerald Pools hikes. It was mostly uphill, especially the climb to the Upper Pool. We were a little disappointed because the waterfall was off. Not much there but a pond. We had some sun in the morning, but by the time we started this walk it was overcast. We took the long way back from the top, and it soon got a little wet. A very light rain had started. It got a little heavier by the time we were done, but nothing serious.
We decided to head out of the park to a nearby ghost town, Grafton. The clerk at the motel pointed it out when she saw the name of the town where we're from. It was on a gravel and clay road, with the usual "impassable when wet" signs. We kept wondering where it was, but the road had no way out but back, so we knew it was somewhere down there. We made it to the cemetery. There were quite a few shallow, mounded graves, mostly with newer headstones. They were mostly from the late 1800's. We could hear thunder, and see rain clouds moving our way, so I opted to leave. In hindsight, we could have gone further down the road and taken a quick look at the town itself. It turns out we were very close, and I don't think the rain ever hit it. I guess they've restored a few buildings.
We drove back through the park toward our motel. Coming through the tunnel, there's the Canyon View trail to a vista point at the top of a canyon off the side of the main Zion Canyon. The walk was a little longer than I had remembered, and of course the light rain started again. But we made it, and it was a pretty interesting walk, even compared to the others.
And then back to the Thunderbird Lodge, where we had dinner in the restaurant, including some of their ho-made pie - apple pie with hot buttered rum sauce.
In the morning, we had breakfast at the Thunderbird again, packed up the car in the rain, and headed off to Zion. It was actually raining, rather than doing that sprinkly stuff like most of the day before. I was thinking we could don our raincoats and do a shortish hike, but then decided it probably wasn't worth it. It was cold, and a little windy. Just generally unpleasant. I took us up to Kolob Canyon. It's part of Zion National Park, but it's a smaller until, about 45 minutes away. I was hoping that even if it was still raining up there, we'd get to see something new. Nope. It was still raining, The temp was down to 37°, and it turned out the road was closed to due ice and snow.
So we decided to try Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. That was a two hour drive into the desert. We got down to St. George before the rain let up, but it followed us for over an hour. We went down through the Virgin River Gorge, across the corner of Arizona. Ten miles of amazing mountains and cliffs, and steep grades.
The weather was good down at Valley of Fire - 70°, and partly cloudy. We saw the famous Elephant Rock. When I got there, I wondered if that's all there was, but the park turned out to be a lot bigger than I expected. We were there for two or three hours, and only saw about half of it. We drove around, seeing a big petrified log, a viewpoint, a couple of picnic stops, and then stopped at a vista point. The colors of the rocks were amazing. We walked up a big sandstone hill. We drove on a little further to the end of the road. There was a mile-long hike that we decided to take after maxing out the laptop with photos, to clear space on our camera cards. A little way in, Cyn twisted her ankle, so she rested for a bit while I took a look around. Then we went back up to the car and left the park.
We went back up to St. George in UT. Had an adequate dinner at the Brick Oven pizza place next to our Ramada, then ignored the Jacuzzi tub.
The next day was the drive back down into Nevada, to Las Vegas. We wanted to see the strip and its denizens, since we had about half a day to kill. We had a little trouble getting there - I made a right off the freeway rather than a left - and then we hit the strip at the Bellagio and took it all the way up to the seedy part, with the little Elvis wedding chapels, pawn shops, "antique stores," and bail bond places. Our destination then was the Neon Boneyard, a repository for many of the vintage neon signs from the city over the decades. The next tour was sold out, so we decided to buy 2:00 tickets, and go back to the strip first.
We went back down the strip, and they were closing one lane just ahead of us, so it took forever to get anywhere, before we wised up and got off of it. We headed south and found some parking. We needed a restroom, so went into the nearby Monte Carlo casino/hotel/resort/whatever. We wandered through the casino and out into the sunshine. We walked for a while, before I discovered we had only an hour-fifteen to get back to our car for the fifteen minute drive back to the boneyard. That sounded like a bit of a rush, since we still needed to eat. We decided to hit the Hard Rock, and it took forever to get back up there. It turned out we had walked a mile, and had to go all the way back up a mile, wait for a table, wait for our food, eat, then try to find our way back to our car (the only way was to retrace our steps through the casino), all inside that 75 minutes. I think it was ten to two when we got back there. They were happy to take us to our tour already in progress at ten after two.
We were in a hurry to join the tour and forgot our sunglasses and sunscreen in the hot Las Vegas sun, but the tour was still pretty awesome. I love the old neon, even in rusted disrepair.
When the tour was over, we got in our car, took the quick way to the airport, with only a couple of wrong turns (the GPS doesn't give you enough warning to get into the correct lane for the exits), remembered to fill up the gas tank in the rental car (which added only a little hassle), and get to the airport in plenty of time. We got to sit with each other on the way back. It was 50° and rainy in Milwaukee, and we got home right at midnight.
After lunch we did the Emerald Pools hikes. It was mostly uphill, especially the climb to the Upper Pool. We were a little disappointed because the waterfall was off. Not much there but a pond. We had some sun in the morning, but by the time we started this walk it was overcast. We took the long way back from the top, and it soon got a little wet. A very light rain had started. It got a little heavier by the time we were done, but nothing serious.
We decided to head out of the park to a nearby ghost town, Grafton. The clerk at the motel pointed it out when she saw the name of the town where we're from. It was on a gravel and clay road, with the usual "impassable when wet" signs. We kept wondering where it was, but the road had no way out but back, so we knew it was somewhere down there. We made it to the cemetery. There were quite a few shallow, mounded graves, mostly with newer headstones. They were mostly from the late 1800's. We could hear thunder, and see rain clouds moving our way, so I opted to leave. In hindsight, we could have gone further down the road and taken a quick look at the town itself. It turns out we were very close, and I don't think the rain ever hit it. I guess they've restored a few buildings.
We drove back through the park toward our motel. Coming through the tunnel, there's the Canyon View trail to a vista point at the top of a canyon off the side of the main Zion Canyon. The walk was a little longer than I had remembered, and of course the light rain started again. But we made it, and it was a pretty interesting walk, even compared to the others.
And then back to the Thunderbird Lodge, where we had dinner in the restaurant, including some of their ho-made pie - apple pie with hot buttered rum sauce.
In the morning, we had breakfast at the Thunderbird again, packed up the car in the rain, and headed off to Zion. It was actually raining, rather than doing that sprinkly stuff like most of the day before. I was thinking we could don our raincoats and do a shortish hike, but then decided it probably wasn't worth it. It was cold, and a little windy. Just generally unpleasant. I took us up to Kolob Canyon. It's part of Zion National Park, but it's a smaller until, about 45 minutes away. I was hoping that even if it was still raining up there, we'd get to see something new. Nope. It was still raining, The temp was down to 37°, and it turned out the road was closed to due ice and snow.
So we decided to try Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. That was a two hour drive into the desert. We got down to St. George before the rain let up, but it followed us for over an hour. We went down through the Virgin River Gorge, across the corner of Arizona. Ten miles of amazing mountains and cliffs, and steep grades.
The weather was good down at Valley of Fire - 70°, and partly cloudy. We saw the famous Elephant Rock. When I got there, I wondered if that's all there was, but the park turned out to be a lot bigger than I expected. We were there for two or three hours, and only saw about half of it. We drove around, seeing a big petrified log, a viewpoint, a couple of picnic stops, and then stopped at a vista point. The colors of the rocks were amazing. We walked up a big sandstone hill. We drove on a little further to the end of the road. There was a mile-long hike that we decided to take after maxing out the laptop with photos, to clear space on our camera cards. A little way in, Cyn twisted her ankle, so she rested for a bit while I took a look around. Then we went back up to the car and left the park.
We went back up to St. George in UT. Had an adequate dinner at the Brick Oven pizza place next to our Ramada, then ignored the Jacuzzi tub.
The next day was the drive back down into Nevada, to Las Vegas. We wanted to see the strip and its denizens, since we had about half a day to kill. We had a little trouble getting there - I made a right off the freeway rather than a left - and then we hit the strip at the Bellagio and took it all the way up to the seedy part, with the little Elvis wedding chapels, pawn shops, "antique stores," and bail bond places. Our destination then was the Neon Boneyard, a repository for many of the vintage neon signs from the city over the decades. The next tour was sold out, so we decided to buy 2:00 tickets, and go back to the strip first.
We went back down the strip, and they were closing one lane just ahead of us, so it took forever to get anywhere, before we wised up and got off of it. We headed south and found some parking. We needed a restroom, so went into the nearby Monte Carlo casino/hotel/resort/whatever. We wandered through the casino and out into the sunshine. We walked for a while, before I discovered we had only an hour-fifteen to get back to our car for the fifteen minute drive back to the boneyard. That sounded like a bit of a rush, since we still needed to eat. We decided to hit the Hard Rock, and it took forever to get back up there. It turned out we had walked a mile, and had to go all the way back up a mile, wait for a table, wait for our food, eat, then try to find our way back to our car (the only way was to retrace our steps through the casino), all inside that 75 minutes. I think it was ten to two when we got back there. They were happy to take us to our tour already in progress at ten after two.
We were in a hurry to join the tour and forgot our sunglasses and sunscreen in the hot Las Vegas sun, but the tour was still pretty awesome. I love the old neon, even in rusted disrepair.
When the tour was over, we got in our car, took the quick way to the airport, with only a couple of wrong turns (the GPS doesn't give you enough warning to get into the correct lane for the exits), remembered to fill up the gas tank in the rental car (which added only a little hassle), and get to the airport in plenty of time. We got to sit with each other on the way back. It was 50° and rainy in Milwaukee, and we got home right at midnight.