Zion and I-15

Well - we've actually arrived safely in La Jolla, but that story is for the next post (but just in case you were wondering. . . )

First of all - Christy and I had an AMAZING time (albeit a short time) at Zion National Park in Utah. All I can say is. . . I'm going back. If you'd like to sign up for that trip, please let my secretary know and we'll get planning! (um, yeah, I am my secretary).
Here is Christy and I in the canyon, and some shots of the canyon.  Really, these pictures don't even come close to capturing this sight. Here you drive into the park and you are in this canyon with majestic rock walls (made of layers of sand) towering above in reds and tans and dotted with green from vegetation. A river runs through the canyon - here is a small waterfall we hiked to along the river and some views of the canyon walls. It is Breathtaking. And there are areas where the water has seeped through the pores in the rock walls and it drips down the sides of the walls near the bottom, and plants (like columbine flowers) literally grow right out the rock wall. They call them hanging gardens. So cool.

 

 Sadly, we had to leave. If we had realized how cool it was, we would have skipped Vegas and stayed! The Narrows is begging to be hiked (or waded through - as we hear there are creek crossings)! Nevertheless, we proceeded on toward Las Vegas. We got to travel through both Arizona and Nevada to get there adding two more states to the list. And I just have to say - Nevada - not the prettiest state ever. I think Iowa beats it. At least Iowa has rolling hills of green farmland. Nevada is just piles of sand. And not even pretty sand like Utah. Ugly piles of sand.

 We stayed in Henderson, so not really in Vegas, as it was on the way to our next sightseeing spot -the Hoover Dam. It was pretty cool - a marvel of civil engineering right?  But really - it was huge! Amazing to think about how they built it. You can see the Colorado River behind Christy and I. The upper right picture is of Lake Mead on the other side of the dam. And the panoramic at the bottom shows only the top portion of the dam. It is too huge for one photograph and extends further down where at the bottom is the power plant and the Colorado River.

Stay tuned for the arrival at our destination!  (sorry I'm so far behind - we just had way too much fun to keep up)