Just How We came to Such a State as This Without Really Trying......Part Nine

THE ROAD TO ZION

We said our goodbyes to our dear friends and set off for southern Utah around the area of Zions park.

The surrounding area became more rocky and barren although more beautiful in color as we started to see red rock. then climbing up in altitude for the first time started to have some over heating problems with our truck. We had to stop several times to let the engine cool and add water to it. The mountains were spectacular with tall pines and beautiful meadows. I always loved being in the mountains but I was not feeling good...lungs full and not feeling quite right.

We finally came down off the mountain and found ourselves at the entrance of Zions Park.I had never gone through it from the North rim so it was a little confusing but it had been many,many years since I had been in this park so many things I had forgotten.

We did not have to pay to go through as we had a life time park pass..you know the kind that old people can buy....lol but it was nice not to have to lay out any more money for anything...

we also had to get a special permit from them to take our trailer through one of the narrow passage ways that was cut into the rock. That meant that all traffic on the other side would be held up as we would make our way through it for it was quite long..I believe a mile and a half.

We stopped once before the tunnel to cool the engine down and to get out and walk around....the park It was so very amazing. Everyone should come here at least once in their life. Anyway we went on and sure enough at that tunnel entrance we were stopped and the traffic that was already in the tunnel came out while oncoming traffic was stopped at the other end. Finally a special car moved in front of us and we drove through it behind the car. I am sure people at both ends were calling us names with this delay. Cannot say that I blame them.....lol

After we made our way through we came up to a very scary hairpin road that went in and out of tunnels. On the outside you could look down into sheer drops where cars looked like ants. Scared the bajeebies out of me ...as I am afraid of heights. Was so glad when we got to the bottom.

On we went and the momentous cliffs and mountains got smaller and smaller and we were in and out of a few towns and finally going trough Hurricane Utah (pronounced Harikin by the locals) we found the camping area that we were going to spend the next two weeks...Only it was night by this time and we could not see a thing..so we pulled over on the side of a road and planned to sleep there till morning.

A gentleman parked over a ways walked down and told us there was a parking place just up the road so we drove up and sure enough a nice flat place to spend the night. We were tired and fell asleep immediately.

In the morning I was awe struck by the beauty of this place...cliffs and plateaus of red and other colors. How could one ever get tired of a place like this..truly magical.

We were setting up camp when this strange man and his five dogs paid us a visit and they started peeeing over everything...(we set things out like our generator and such and the dogs...not the man...lol....were soaking everything Well Pete came unglued and yelled at the dogs (not the man) and the man quietly opened his van,put the dogs back in and drove off with a very angry look on his face,

(I think he was a very rude man)

Welllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.......we soon got a visit from a government man and claimed that we were parking on private government property. We showed him the map that said it was BLM land

and could be camped on....he said that was too bad and that we would have to move anyway. (I think those guys were buddies. ….So we moved down the road to an even better place so it worked in our favor. What a view this was …....overlooking even parts of Zions park...I cannot even describe the scenery as it is beyond description

ro be continued