From The Bottom Up

In the morning we enjoy the beautiful view, but break camp early. We are off to see Zion National Park. As in Grand Canyon, the Park Service at Zion is relying heavily of the use of shuttle buses to stem traffic, pollution, and parking problems. The drill here is to park in the town of Springdale and catch a free park shuttle town loop bus to the visitor center, where you pay your entrance fee and then ride the other shuttle loop inside the park to see many of the best sights in the park. In contrast to Grand Canyon, at Zion you are in the canyon bottom beside the Virgin River, looking up at the canyon rim high above. We see rock climbers dangling from ropes as they scale the cliffs high above. What a sight—the geology is fantastic. We take a hundred pictures while the bus completes its loop and the various stops where the hardy go hiking to see even more spectacular sights.

By late afternoon we are on our way to Bryce Canyon. Hwy 9 eastbound out of Zion has a lot of climbing switchbacks with beautiful views and a mile long tunnel that has restrictions if you are driving a rig like ours. What we have to do is drive Essie separately (to meet the vehicle length restriction) and when we come to the tunnel, opposing traffic is stopped (in due time) at the other end and we drive through the middle of the tunnel where the vertical and horizontal clearance is best. There is a $15 fee for this service, but it really doesn’t take much of a wait and is way better than the great circle route to Bryce. The scenery on this drive is equal to that on the shuttle bus scenic drive—maybe better. I’m driving Essie and I take lots of one-handed pictures as I go. Diane follows in DD. Actually, I haven’t touched DD’s wheel since we left Grand Canyon; Diane figures I got to drive all the way out here and she just can’t get enough.

We arrive at Bryce just before sunset and we find a few spots available in the one open campground inside the park (ta da!). It’s pre-season and their second campground isn’t open yet.