Zion National Park, What a Beauty!

You would think that as retirees and full time RVers the idea of taking a vacation would be a bit odd.  After all, are we not on vacation all the time?  Well, not exactly, but still, the idea of taking a vacation feels odd to us.  But we did think about it and Cyndee has found us a motel room for two nights a little ways outside the east entrance to Zion National Park.

From our location on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon we are about a three hours drive to Zion.  We are still scratching our heads as to why we never made it Zion last year when we were camp hosting at the North Rim.  We did one little overnight trip to Bryce Canyon and that was it.  This year we are making a more concerted effort to get out and about on our days off and see the sights. 
This set of four days off we'll be in a motel for two nights and eating in restaurants for three days, just like real tourists!

So we packed our bags (yep, we kept a couple of duffle bags for just such an occasion) and headed north to Kanab and then just a few more miles north out of Kanab to Mt Carmel, UT where our Motel room awaited us.  Coming down from the North Rim to Mt Carmel was a study in climate change.  We went from the shade-cooled air wafting through ponderosa pines to the furnace of a semi-arid valley.  The trip into the canyon of Zion promised to be even hotter.  And it was.

Zion is a park of few roads.  There is the one that connects the east entrance to the south entrance and then there is one that branches off this road that parallels the Virgin River and goes up-canyon to the Lodge.  This up-canyon road is restricted to shuttle buses and lodge guests.  If you want to see the lodge or the most famous parts of the canyon you either have to walk, ride a bike or take the shuttle.  But when it got down to it, the shuttle was a pretty sweet deal.  It was free, it stopped at all the trail heads and you never had to wait more than a couple minutes for one to come by.

Coming in from the east entrance affords a special treat.  There are two tunnels, one that is short in length but tall and wide in clearance.  The other, built a very long time ago is almost a mile long (at the time it was built it was the longest tunnel in the country) but its height and width clearance is not so impressive.  Back then all they had to worry about for vehicle size was touring cars and small delivery trucks.  They never envisioned the eighteen wheelers or the monster trucks and RV's that are so common today.  Consequently, if you drive an RV, so long as it is shorter than 13 feet tall, you have to pay a $15 fee to pass through the tunnel under "controlled access".  There are little huts at each end of the tunnel with rangers stationed at them.  They allow two-way traffic to pass through the tunnel as long as they are motorcycles, passenger cars, vans and such.  But as soon as a dual rear wheel anything or a trailer shows up, they stop traffic from entering the tunnel in both directions, let the tunnel get clear of any vehicles in it and then allow oversized traffic in one direction to proceed with the instructions to drive in the middle, straddling the center stripe.

When we pulled up in Big Gulp there was no hesitation, the stop signs went up and radio calls were made to the other end.  Traffic started backing up on both ends of the tunnel while they coordinated the "dance" that had to be done to get large vehicles from one side to the other. 

That's a little hole in a big rock.

But as soon as they see Big Gulp the Rangers come out and the stop signs go up.

Now we wait for a mile's worth of traffic coming from the other way to clear the tunnel.

It is almost time to go.  Gotta shed the sunglasses and turn on the driving lights.

And here we go.  I really wanted to honk the air horns in the tunnel but Cyndee convinced me it was probably not a good idea.

As you pass through the tunnel you get a brief look at several galleries that have been cut in the tunnel and look out over the canyon you are about to descend into when you exit the tunnel.  Back in the day, traffic was so minimal that visitors could stop in the tunnel, get out and enjoy the giant windows in the rock.  Not today, stopping in the tunnel is strictly forbidden.

But just a short distance from the west exit side of the tunnel is a turnout that gives a great view of Zion Arch and the last gallery before exiting the tunnel.

On this outing we did something a little bit different.  Rather than just take still photographs, we also took a number of videos.  Then, upon returning home, we fused the stills and video into a "movie".  I am embedding that movie here and going to let you folks try it out to see how it works.

After working with it for nearly two weeks I came to realize that the water in Zion really captured my attention.  I guess after being in arid environments for nearly eighteen months I was taken with running water.  Hence, lots of water pictures/video in the movie.

The movie illustrates just how much of an amateur I am at this video stuff.  I'll have to get much better at it if I am to post more of them.