Another beautiful day in Zion National Park

Yesterday afternoon Katie and I walked to the Visitor's center to see what was there.  Katie couldn't come in, so I tethered her outside the building and ran in to get whatever they have in the way of free maps or brochures.  She did just fine, I could see her from the large windows, so I wasn't worried.

 The Virgin River

We walked again this morning for an hour and a half and then another hour this evening.  We are really getting our exercise here!  We walk pretty slow, though, stopping often to look at things or take photos, so we're not burning as many calories as we would if we were moving a little faster.

I've been having battery issues again, so we drove off today into the nearby town, Springdale, and I did a little window shopping and stopped at a liquor store to get more wine.  You can buy beer at the stores here in Utah, but anything else is only sold at liquor stores.

I also drove over to the Watchman Campground, where we'll be on Saturday, and checked out our campsite.  It looks very nice, I definitely like that campground better with an RV.  It looks like it was built for RVs, good flat areas to park and electricity - that will be nice.

When we got back I was talking to my neighbors, and I guess someone drove their RV into my campsite and started moving my leveling blocks, which are ORANGE and were stacked right where I needed them to drive back onto.  Luckily my neighbors walked over and told them the site was taken.  The people said, "There's NO ONE here!"  Even if the site was completely empty, my tag is on the post showing the site is taken.  I wouldn't have had a problem, but the hassle was averted, and I appreciated that.  The site next to me, which had a tent when I arrived, has been empty since yesterday and no one has camped there. It's a nice site, too.

Critter photos from our walks today:

From Me and My Dog, have a great Thursday evening, everyone!  :)

Zion National Park, UT

We made it to Zion around noon, and we're in the South Campground. 

As we neared the turnoff into the campground, I saw some deer on my right, then when we turned into the South campground, these guys were foraging in the grass to my left.  Maybe I'll actually get some animal shots here.  I seem to be pretty good at birds and lizards, as you all know.  I'd like to graduate to larger animals.  :)

Here's the deer photo:

 Close-up of the buck - isn't he pretty?

Luckily we have a campsite for the next four days.  $8 a night with the Senior Pass.  It's a "pull-through" site, although I don't think they call them that.  I was just lucky to drive down the road I did, because the sites in my row have a road on each side.  I took this photo, then I backed The Palms up into the table/BBQ area where it's flatter.  Here's our campsite:

We were in the parking lot of the Hurricane, UT Walmart last night, as I posted in last night's post.  Well, I've gotta tell you - I was up and down from 10:00 until 2:20, when I gave up and got back on the road.  There was another Walmart in Washington, UT, and another in Saint George, UT, and I decided I'd rather get a few hours of good sleep than lie awake worried all night.  There were a few small trees that lost branches, the light post by my rig had it's lights go out.  I moved the rig about 11, trying to get into a better position, but the wind gusts never let up all the time we were there.  I like a little wind and the rocking The Palms does, but this was really bad.  I don't think I've ever been in winds that bad.

This morning I woke up at 9:30, and got right back on the road on the way to Zion.  I didn't want to get here so late that we wouldn't get a campsite like what happened at Bryce. 

As we retraced our steps and drove through the town of Hurricane, past the Walmart, etc., the wind was still howling.  It was super windy all the way up the mountains.  I was praying as I was driving, "Please let Zion be calm."  It's a little breezy, but that's all so far today.

Everywhere you look in this area you see beauty.  This is just along the freeway:

There are strangely shaped and colored rock outcroppings everywhere, and then the beautiful mountains, one after the other, each with another behind it, and another taller one behind that.  And they all look different.  I can see why people love Bryce, Zion, and Utah in general.  I can't imagine there's another place on earth that has this kind of rugged beauty.

These are some of the photos I took while I was driving along the highway on the way to Zion:

As you can imagine, they are unbelievable in person.  Or in mountain.  You know what I mean. :)

And finally, our next door neighbor:

We have no hook-ups here for four days, but the other campground where we have reservations starting Saturday does have electric.  This is the longest we've dry camped, so we'll see how we do.  I've already figured out the coffee - boil a pot of water on the gas stove, cut open three Keurig coffee cups and dump into the water, heat, strain, and pour into coffee cup.  I didn't have time for coffee this morning, and really wanted a cup when we got set up here.  So that's what I did, I made three cups and put two into a thermos for later or tomorrow morning.  Of course, we can use the generator for two hours in the morning and two at night.  I think.  I've got to look up the regs.

Katie and I are going for a walk now, before it gets too cool.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Wednesday evening, everyone!  :)

Hurricane, UT - Being blown away in Walmart's parking lot

Today was a very satisfying day.  This morning I hooked up to the sewer and dumped the tanks.  Katie and I took one more short walk, then I vacuumed the couch and floors while I still had electricity.  I don't think Zion has any hook-ups.

Leaving the campground.  

I wish my camera had a 3-D setting to show the layers in this photo.

We went into the town of Hurricane, UT and found a laundromat, where I did tons of laundry.  That's always a good job to get done.

On the way to the laundromat we drove past an RV sales and service shop, so when I was done folding and putting away and hanging everything up, I drove back there to see if they could change the oil on The Palms.  They said they don't change oil, they use a shop down the street, so I went there and they took The Palms right away.  I got the oil changed and tires checked, fluids checked, all that stuff.  So now when I head down to Arizona, I won't worry about having to get those things done there.

Then we drove to the local Walmart where I did my grocery shopping. 

We are over-nighting here tonight - it's windy as hell (excuse my French, but it is), and there's lightning in the sky.  I just looked out and there was a whole line of lightning showing up behind the mountains to my right.  I sure hope the light fixtures in this parking lot stay grounded.  They are swaying in the wind. 

Today was beautiful, but this wind tonight - wow!  About 8:30 I took Katie outside to go potty, and when I opened the door, it FLEW out of my hand and SLAMMED into the side of the rig.  It actually cracked the plastic thingy that the door hooks into when open.  I was happy there wasn't a hole in the side of The Palms.   Incredible.  No rain, though.  It did rain last night for about ten minutes, but nothing yet tonight.   I don't see any stars in the night sky, so it must be cloudy. 

This was the sunset from the Walmart parking lot this evening:

I'm watching TV and typing by the generator, but will turn it off soon and go to bed.  Another RV just pulled up alongside me, and I don't want the generator to bother them.

Tomorrow I'm going to drive over to Zion and see if I can get in early.  If not, there are a few RV parks here in town I'll check out.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Tuesday night, everyone!  :)

Final night at Sand Canyon State Park, UT

I found a new use for my camera - I can use it as binoculars.  Since the zoom is 18x, if I want to see something close up from The Palms that's down the road quite a ways, I can aim the camera and zoom it in.  So look out, keep your curtains closed.  :)  Just kidding.

This morning I saw some rustling in a bush across from The Palms, and I got the camera out to see what it was, and I could see the bushes very clearly.  I didn't see what made it rustle, but I've wanted a pair of small binoculars, and this camera is exactly that.  I could use it at a game or show, etc., to see the action better. Cool, huh?

Although this campground has full hook-ups, there is also an OHV accessible campground with some hookups and some primitive camping areas, too.  These are the facilities in the campground I'm in:

Restroom

Five shower rooms - nice because you can always find a shower that's available.

Inside of shower room. 

I really like these showers, because they are private rooms with hooks for hanging, a bench to put things on, and the outer room stays dry.  The shower was hot (a tiny bit too hot for me) and is a push type knob.  When you push the knob, the water sprays out in a good spray for about 8 seconds. Then you have to push it again each time for another spray.  

The rest room and showers were very clean.

Isn't this a pretty lizard?

Three birds in the bush.

Did I hear a critter?

 I think I see him!

 There he is!

 Our last sunset at Sand Canyon.

Did you know some Utah Freeways are 80 miles per hour?

Tomorrow we leave Sand Canyon.  I need to do laundry and then shop for groceries, so I plan to overnight at Walmart and then see if we can get a "walk-in" site at Zion on Wednesday morning.  Our reservation starts on Saturday.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Monday night, everyone!  :)

Our LONG walk and Katie's treasures

Friday afternoon a transformer in the park blew, and we all lost our electricity.  I wasn't sure if it was me or the parks' electricity, so I called the office and got the fast busy signal.  Their phone lines are dependent on electricity and weren't working, so I knew it wasn't me.  Then I went out and unplugged The Palms so I wouldn't ruin anything if there was a surge when it came back on.

Luckily it wasn't too hot that afternoon, it was in the 80s, and we did fine without electricity.  My computer works with the inverter, and I didn't need anything else. Isn't it nice to live in a self contained house?

It went off around 4:30 and came back at 7:30, just in time for the good TV shows.  

Katie and I took another loooong walk yesterday.  We took off in a couple of different directions, retraced our steps, and then I decided to walk up the road to the parking lot, which I finally found, and from there walk across the levee to the beach area at the other end.

Well... when we were about half way along the levee, the beach in the distance kept seeming farther and farther away.  I was thinking, if we make it to the beach, then we are going to have to walk alllllllll the way back.  Not good.  Katie was lagging, I think the rocky path was slowing her down.  I never know if what we're walking on is bothering the little pads on her feet, but she was starting to pant a little and I was getting tired, so we turned around and headed back to the beginning of the levee.

I carried Katie part of the way and part of the way back. She seemed happy about that.  Not only was she not walking, she had a better view up in my arms than on the ground.

When we got back to the parking lot, we went to the restroom and I made a cup of my hands and got her some water, and she drank it all, so she was thirsty.  Then we walked back to the rig; we were both very happy to be home again.

These long walks are new to us, and obviously we need the exercise, but walking an hour and a half in 80+ degree temps is pretty good for a 66 years old woman and a tiny dog, I think.  Three and a half years ago, before I lost 25 pounds, I could not have begun to walk like this.  A lot of our walks here are at a slight incline, and back then I would have been so out of breath, and my legs would have really felt the burn. Today I was breathing and climbing just fine.  I was pretty happy about that, even though I was glad we turned around before we got to the beach.

Here are all the treasures Katie found on our walk:

Katie finds interesting stuff on the ground that I'd never see. I think this was a small critter.  She found three of them along the way on the Levee.  I don't think they were fish.

Katie found this huge worm, too, by our campsite. Horn worm?  That's Katie's nose by it's tail, she was very interested in it.

Katie loves these lizards.  They go into a bush, and she'll stand and watch and wait for them to come out.  Of course, they don't, and we move on.

Views along the way.   These are from our walk back along the levee.

And back to camp.

From Me and My Dog, have a great Sunday, everyone!  :)