Zion National Park

As expected, it was just an amazing day yesterday as the vocabulary consisted of mainly - wow, incredible, amazing, outstanding, Geez and wow again. We spent the entire day in the Park and we still didn't see everything. There is so much that we didn't see that we changed our schedule so we could do another day in Zion, rather than travel to Bryce Canyon today. We thought we would do Bryce next year on our trip north from AZ to Jackson. We took 153 photos and it was a challenge just to decide which ones to put in the blog today.

Our plan for the day was to park at the visitors center just inside the gate and use the free shuttle bus to tour the park. On our way to the park, we pulled into an area that had a sign saying lots and homes for sale. We are always looking for those kinds of signs. We drove up the hill and discovered an area that makes the Troon Village in AZ look like a ghetto. We took some shots of the homes and views they have, which are below:

After drooling over these homes and lots, we proceeded to the entry gate and to the Visitors Center where we parked and boarded a shuttle bus. There are eight stops along the canyon road and we wanted to stop at most of them. The first was the Zion Human History Museum where we watched a 30 minute film on orientation of the park. The next stop where we wanted to spend some time was at the Patriarchs where we took this shot:

 and where the Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - are located:

The next stop was at the Zion Lodge where we wanted to take the hike to the Emerald Pools. We were prepared with our hiking shoes and back pack containing water and snacks. There was a bridge that crossed the Virgin River that led to the trail head. This shot is taken from the bridge:

We no sooner started on the trail when we noticed this small mule deer buck grazing along the side of the trail:

The trail led to 3 pools. The lower pool was almost 1 mile into the canyon and looked like this:

The 3 pools - lower, middle and upper - were all created by waterfalls which were pretty much just a trickle at this time of the year:

After walking a total of about 2 miles, we came to the middle pool:

Each of the three pools required a much more strenuous climb than the one before. We finally reached the upper falls which was tucked into the end of this small canyon with sheer cliffs surrounding the pool:

It was huge and had a nice sandy beach although no swimming was allowed in the pool. As mentioned, the trail become tougher the higher we climbed. Below are some shots taken of the trail at various locations:

And then there is this one where Josie held up the rock for everybody to pass:

We continued the hike to what is called The Grotto, which was actually the next stop for the bus. We hiked a total of about 4 miles through some pretty tough areas and we were "pooped" when we arrived at the bus stop at The Grotto. 

It was a day of spectacular scenes and I have included some of those below:

We did take the bus to the other stops but we were tired and anxious to get back at about 4 PM.

The football report from what I could find on the Internet had Austin's team, Waubonsie High School, losing their first gane of the year, 35-34 in double OT. Austin had 252 yards rushing and 1 TD in the game. It seems that his team tried a 2 pt conversion in the second overtime, and they missed, so their arch rival Neuqua Valley won the game. Sad report, although Austin played well.

Today we will again go to Zion, but take a different route to the Kolob Plateau which we understand is a "don't miss" part of the Park...

Arrival in Virgin, UT

Our drive was a lot shorter yesterday - 250 miles vs 310 on Wednesday - and it was almost totally I-15 the whole way. We turned off at Exit 27 on I-15 which is just before the town of St George. The campground was about 15 miles off the freeway and we knew we were in for some spectacular scenery as we got closer to the campground:

It was close to 1:30 by the time we arrived at our campground - Zion River Resort - which is the campground where our friend Donna had been manager for 10 years before moving to the Jackson area. We received a nice discount and our reservation had us in one of the nice sites:

The only problems with our site are that we cannot use our satellite dish for TV because of the trees - we do have cable at the site, though - and the signal for cell phone and Internet use is very weak. There is Wi-Fi included with our site, but so far, it doesn't seem much better than the Verizon signal. It will be a challenge to complete the blog entries each day as pictures take forever to download.

Following our set-up and reading the information about the area, we took a drive to the park entrance. The views kept getting better and better with each bend in the road:

We arrived at the park entrance and spent a lot of time at the Visitors Center which was just inside the gate. The model of the park shows the road we will be taking today as we spend the entire day in Zion National Park:

Actually, we will parking our Jeep at the Visitors Center and taking the shuttle bus through the park. This is the recommended way to see the park as it is a free bus and it stops at many places along the road. The park service added this free shuttle as a result of limited parking areas within the park and the massive traffic jams that were being caused by the volume of traffic.

We are looking forward to our day in Zion National Park and we hope to have some great photos for tomorrow...

Travel to Provo

It was just after 8 AM when we finally pulled out of our space in Jackson. We took the most direct route south and avoided as many mountain passes as possible. There was really only one pass that was of any significance and that was one just before we went through Evanston, WY, and into Utah. We made excellent time and only stopped once for a potty break. We picked up I-80 in Evanston, and took it all the way to Salt Lake City. Rather than go through the city, we decided to take the road through Park City and West Heber to Provo, and avoid the downtown traffic. It was a wise decision as that route took us through some beautiful country that we hadn't seen before. We just missed the peak of the fall colors in this area but we were able to get some photos of the area - through our windshields, so I apologize for any glare. Starting with this shot which is the view that Josie has all day while following the fifth wheel:

and these that were taken of the hills that were covered in colorful fall colors:

You can tell from those shots that a couple weeks ago, this area would have been spectacular with the bright colors.

We arrived at the campground at 2:15 PM and, as a result of the non-peak season, were able to choose any site that was available. We chose one that was adjacent to the lake - Utah Lake - even though we couldn't see the lake as a result of the high brush next the site:

We did take a short walk to the lake just to get a picture:

After getting set up in our space, we took a drive to town to find a good place to have dinner. We found an Olive Garden and had a wonderful dinner. It has been many months since we've eaten at one of those, and it didn't disappoint. We then drove some more around town - a nice town - and found the Mormon Temple which, as you can guess, is a beautiful facility:

We did drive through the campus of BYU and arrived home at 6:30, in time to watch the start of the Presidential Debate. We didn't stick around for the finish though, so we watched a taped show and hit the sack early.

Today we drive almost entirely on I-15 to Virgin, UT, where we will spend 3 days exploring the Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks...

Set to Go

We did all that had to be done to get everything set to go again. We got our propane filled, we drained the water tank and partially refilled with fresh water, cleaned the last part of the grill, repacked the storage basement while Josie did all the cleaning inside. Our vehicles are gassed up and ready to go.

There was a time yesterday when we thought we might have wanted to leave a day earlier. The weather forecast is for very cold mornings - down to the low 20's - in the next couple days. The temperature this morning is 49, so there is a long way to go and we should be fine.

The RV park is almost like a ghost town now:

and the lodge, having been filled to capacity for most of the summer, looks like this now:

The end is near and we are ready to go:

Except for losing power for an hour in the park last night, the preparations have gone without a hitch. Our night was very relaxing and all we have to do this morning is disconnect the utilities, pull in the slides and hit the road. It has been a wonderful experience and one that we hope to renew next year.

Our destination for today is Provo, UT, where we will stay at the State Park at Utah Lake....

Final Farewells

It was our first day after work ended yesterday and was spent doing a couple things. The first was a last visit to the lodge to say goodbye to Judy (our front desk manager) and Chelsey (Judy's daughter and first shift worker). We took a picture of them in the office:

We also picked up our completion bonus check and took it to the bank to deposit. There still should be one more check, aside from our last paycheck, which is called a commission check. This is an amount divided equally among the front desk workers that is money collected from all the other vendors and hotels where we referred people and receive a commission. We don't know how much that will be, but it adds to the value of being an employee here.

We then went to Kmart to take advantage of a huge bed linen sale they were having and bought some new sheets and pillow cases for our bed. As we were leaving that parking lot, we decided to have one last DQ and see the Tetons one last time. It was as clear as it has been in several weeks, so we took this shot of the almost bare mountains:

It's quite a contrast from the early summer photos when they were packed with snow.

We came back to the fifth wheel and started our preparations for departure. Josie did a final load of laundry and I cleaned the grill to pack away for our trip. Donna called to set a time to meet at Sidewinders for dinner which was our final farewell to her.

The meal was very good at Sidewinders and our day ended with a farewell to Donna and a mutual commitment to stay in touch over the winter to remain current on happenings in Jackson Hole.

Our day today is pretty much layed out for us with everything else to do to prepare for leaving tomorrow. It will be a leisurely day that will end, hopefully, with our hitching up tonight for an early departure tomorrow AM...

End of Another Season

We really did go out with a bang yesterday on our last work day of the season. There were 127 checkouts that kept us jumping until after 11 AM. The rest of the day was fun and very pleasant as we wound down another season of workamping. It was an opportunity to catch a few last minute photos in the lodge.

The first photo is of Donna, sitting at one of the terminals. Notice that her right arm is in a sling. She broke her arm when she fell in her back yard almost 2 weeks ago and she went about 4 days before she went to the doctor to get an x-ray and it was discovered that it was broken:

The next photo is of Donna and Josie behind the front desk:

Our managers come in and out on the weekends and yesterday we had an opportunity to say goodbye to Mike Kraft, our General Manager and the big boss:

Josie had to get a shot of me standing under a famous quote from the story "The Virginian" before the end of the day:

Finally, as our day and our season ended, the other workamping couple, Fields and Maggie Young came on duty. They winter in Florida every year and have been coming to the Virginian for 10 years now:

Finally, I wanted to end the photos for today with one that has a little story to it. There is a sign that is normally seen at the very top of the Teton Pass. We showed one of those photos on the post a few days ago, taken from the spot at the top of the pass. There was another one that Josie took and showed where the sign should be:

Below is a shot taken yesterday of a screen saver on one of the office terminals that shows the sign as it should be seen, before it was taken down for maintenance:

It seemed like a nice way to end the season.

We will stop in the office this morning and say goodbye to Judy, our manager, and to pick up our bonus checks for the season. We will get a couple more shots of the folks we missed yesterday. We also have planned to meet Donna at one of the restaurants in town - Sidewinders - for a farewell dinner this afternoon.

The season went very fast and we had the best time that we have ever had on a workamping assignment. We enjoyed it so much that we plan to return again next year...