two parks, three states
I think Denise is tired; she said that I should write again today because words aren't jumping out for her. We didn't overdo it today but we did have that 3-hour drive to get close to our wandering spot for tomorrow.
Let's see, today we started walking and looking in Utah, we stopped in Arizona to explore a new-to-us spot, and we ended the day in Nevada. Hmm... three states! Oh, and we switched time zones again.
We started our day in Zion by walking the Pa'rus Trail. It's a flat (and paved!) trail that winds from the visitor center, following the river to Canyon Junction. It was really cold this morning and Denise wanted a fast walk to start out. Flat means it's easier to go fast! That trail is really pretty too, with red-rocked mountains on two sides. I told Denise she was wearing too many layers to start with (again). She said she needed them to start out; luckily she had room in her camera bag to stash the layers because she didn't need them for very long!
Next we headed up the snaking, switch-backed road leading to the Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel. And yes, we did drive through the tunnel (twice, since we came back the same way). What an amazing structure! The tunnel is a very narrow two-lanes wide. There's only room for two cars side-by-side, no room for walking... It's 1.1 miles long and very dark except for the spots where there is a window to look down into the valley. It's really too bad that stopping in the tunnel is not allowed. I could have stood in those windows soaking in the view for a long time, and Denise told me she would have happily joined me there.
We left Zion at about 2 in the afternoon, heading west. I convinced Denise to make a stop in Arizona on the way back to Las Vegas. On one of our previous visits to Zion Denise noticed a sign for the Virgin River Canyon Recreation Area, and I was curious. I wanted to see what was there. It's really funny - there is an exit on I-15, and the only thing that is there is one road marked private and the recreation area. It's in the section of I-15 where Denise always wants to stop even though she knows it's not OK to stop on an interstate highway. I didn't have to convince her to pull off of the road, I just mentioned that I wanted to stop and we were on our way! We found a path down to the river and did a little bit of walking down there. I'm so glad we stopped!
Back in the car, it was time to head for our home (away from home) for the next two nights. It was another good day!
--- Rover
