Nevada/Utah

We got lucky on the road just after Great Basin. We stopped for gas at a lonely, empty station. Jim came out from the shop and pointed out that the faded yellow line is a state line. Adam is in Nevada and Jim and Laura are in Utah.

Great Basin National Park

Because we were in the area, Jim really wanted to stop by Great Basin National Park. Going to all the National Parks has become an item on his bucket list and this is somewhere he probably won't be seeking out on its own. It turns out it isn't somewhere many people seek out. If you take the time to drive far back into the park, there are apparently very pretty river/mountain/meadow scenes and lovely-ness. Also caves. Also a glacier. Alas, the glacier road was closed for construction, the caves were closed for Covid, and didn't feel invested enough to venture deep into the park for more river/mountain/meadow scenes. But we officially can say we went to Great Basin. I did learn about the park from the visitor's center and wish that I had the chance to tour the caves and see the glacier. Maybe some day, who knows? 

Anyways, on the way out of the park, there's a little awning and display about the ranching in the area, so I made the family stop and get out to get something useful out of our trip to Great Basin National Park.

The rest of Zion

Gimme all your money!

Adam finally found a souvenir- a Zion hoodie

bikes!

Love this

Hee hee

Prepping for some tubing

1

2

3

Gone!

There was a line of 3-4 of these rapids on the creek behind our Zion campground (again - its downstream of the same river that formed the Narrows, indeed all of Zion Canyon - cool!). The 3 of them would ride down, then walk back up and ride again. Must have been fun - they probably did it for at least an hour! If you look at pic #2 with Laura, you can see the other route down a big drop off. That's the one she accidentally went down the first try. That was a mistake and was almost  the end of the fun before it began. Luckily, she's a trouper and way braver than me and gave it another try. 

This is the day - the only day - that we actually went into a restaurant. And sat down at a table. 

and had a waiter. and then did it again for dinner. Gasp!

I know - craziness. And gloriousness.

All of us went to a place just outside the park and ate enormous amounts of food: appetizers, drinks and everything! Then Jim and I walked back towards the park that evening and had excellent thai food for dinner.  We were all seated every other table, wore masks on the way in/out, and the waiters wore their masks the whole time. Otherwise, just a normal eating experience, only so much more because we'd been eating out of our little RV kitchen for a month.

Get it together people!

Someone please teach the Caspers to take selfies.

Zion! The Narrows

We rode our bikes into the park in the morning. The park shuttle pass was good from 8-9am into the park. Once up in the canyon you can ride around and back down anytime you like. Parking is advertised as very limited and we didn't want to have to pack up the RV if we had an easy alternative, so we rode our bikes the easy mile and walked into the park.

When Jim and I hiked the narrows 15 years ago, I don't remember crowds. We had camped in the park, so maybe we were there early enough, or maybe it just wasn't as popular. But the word is definitely out! It was crowded. But not so much that we couldn't keep our distance.

Hiking up the Narrows involves hiking in the water, stepping on medium sized, rounded rocks, through a narrow canyon with very steep sides. It's not as slippery as you might imagine, but it is as cold as you might imagine. After the initial shock, it's not bad at all (or maybe you go numb?). It is shocking there aren't more sprained ankles, but no injuries for the Caspers. The water depth can vary and there is a sign at the beginning showing how likely a flash flood is that day, so I know the water can come rushing dangerously down. But both times that we've been there, it's been an easy walk. This time, the water was low enough that there were quite a few exposed rock and sand places, so you didn't even have to get wet all the time if you didn't like. But there definitely were a few sections that where you didn't have a choice and had to walk in the water. The kids liked this hike, at least they say they did now that it's over. Adam and I chose to dunk ourselves in one deep section. And Jim and Laura probably got up to their waist by choice. But mostly we were ankle deep.

I like the shadows from the water bugs.

This was a lot like the Horseshoe Bend in Arizona

I told him he looked like a Greek statue in an alcove in a museum, so he played the part well.

I got to do some deep thinking as we walked and it struck me how individual this hike is compared to others. Even though other are people around you, it's not really a group activity. Everyone decides their own water depth, everyone picks their own path and their own rocks to step on, whether it's big or small or the ones peeking out of the top of the water or deep down. You're too busy trying not to fall to have conversation. You spend a lot of time looking down at your feet, and then every once in a while you look up and are amazed all over again at the beauty of the canyon. I know there's other gorgeous places in Zion, and I hope to go back and spend a lot of time there checking them all out, but I'm so glad we fit this hike in on this trip and that the kids enjoyed it as much as I did the first time.

Zion National Park has been a problem since the beginning of our trip. I said I really wanted to go there because I had such great memories when Jim and I hiked The Narrows 15 years ago. So of course Jim wanted to make it happen at all costs. A couple problems the first time we were in this area: the shuttle in the park was not working and our RV was too long to go up into the park. So we skipped it and I thought that was the end of it. But Jim kept checking and found out that the shuttle started working again, you just needed to get a reservation to ride the shuttle since they were limiting access for Covid-19 safety. Some were available far in advance and then some were available one day in advance. After coming back down the coast and seeing Death Valley, we were close enough to think about trying again. We had missed the early ones, so we though we would wait around in the area until we got the last minute tickets. We were lucky enough to get them the first day we tried. So we got a spot for 2 nights at an RV park a mile from the entrance. And we headed that direction. The RV park was full but awesome. There was a lovely little river right behind the park, the same one that happened to form Zion Canyon. 

It was just lovely.

We waded a bit, caught some tadpoles and minnows, and went back to the RV for an early night since it was going to be an early morning

Laura made some dirt art

This is the view from the campground. It's stunning.