The Psalmist says 'I lift up my eyes to the hills---where does my help come from?' We are in the Zion National Park, about three hours from Vegas. It is beautiful, everywhere you look there are mountains. We have been staying here for a couple of nights, in a lovely hotel. We have a room on the second floor overlooking the pool with the mountains in the background. It is very peaceful here, but still hot. We stopped to get some supplies at Hurricane and it was 113, but slightly cooler in the mountains, just over 100! We arrived Monday afternoon and settled in, it was still warm so Linda went for a swim, I decided to go for a run, it's the best place to see somewhere new and get your bearings. I ran into the national park and a little jog around, found out some details of the routes at the visitors centre, then ran back to the hotel. Linda was enjoying herself in the pool, we have a balcony so I sat on there, till it got too hot for the IPad and then came inside.
We had salad and fruit to eat in the evening, we have a fridge in our room which means we get cold water, plus Linda can have milk in her tea. We had an early night, all the driving was tiring. On Tuesday we had porridge for breakfast and then walked to the shuttle stop. There is a shuttle from Springdale to the park, the you get on have free shuttle within the park. It takes about 40 minutes to get to the last shuttle stop, Temple of Sinawava. There is then a nice walk which is around 2 miles and goes into the canyon along the river. It was very pleasant, David Bailey was in her element with the camera, clicking all the way. It was hot today, but fortunately cooler the further in the canyon you went, I don't want to get sun burnt!
We then got the shuttle back to Big Bend and Linda got off to take more photos, just in case she had missed a view. It is very scenic here. Our next stop was Zion Lodge, where we stopped for lunch, a sarnie and coffee -no Starbucks out here! No phone signal either. After Lunch we got the shuttle back to Zion History Museum and then walked back along the river to the Visitors centre, it was a pleasant walk on paved paths. It was now over a 100 so you need to drink plenty of water. At the visitors centre we had a look round before getting the shuttle back into Springdale. We went to the supermarket to buy some food for our evening meal, salad and fruit again, we do enjoy this healthy living (well I do). We stopped for a coffee and the USA/Belgium game was on, so I watched it for a few minutes, before going outside to enjoy my coffee.
We walked back to the hotel and decided to go for a swim and relax by the pool. I did some swimming and then read the paper. Linda spent more time in the pool than me. After dinner, I treated Linda to a 2 mile run around town to show her the sights, she really appreciated it!
The plan on Wednesday was to leave at 8am and have a drive around the park, before heading back to Vegas. I packed the night before so I would be ready. I got up at 5.45 as I had planned a run around the park first, so I left at 6am, had a nice 10k run around the park, I went to Canyon junction and took some pictures, before running back again. I then sorted a few things out, Linda was still asleep, so I went out and bought a cappuccino and sat by the pool reading the paper, I then came back to the room still asleep, I had a shower and she still did not wake. I guess we are not leaving at 8!
We finally left at 0930 and drove back into the park. We were going to drive through the The Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel? Construction of the 1.1 mile Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel began in the late 1920's and was completed in 1930. At the time that the tunnel was dedicated, on July 4, 1930, it was the longest tunnel of its type in the United States. We then enjoyed a scenic route around the park, the mountains looked different on the east side. We stopped at Kanab for a coffee, as I had been driving for a while, then we followed the road towards St George, which was 90 minutes away. The road was lonely, I was the only car on it! It was straight, so I just set the cruise control and sat back and enjoyed the drive, steering occasionally, we went through Indian territory, but I did not see any, although according to the notices there is a pow-wow in August.
In St George we did some last minute shopping in Walmart, Linda bought some jeans. We stopped at a Outback Steakhouse for dinner, I had a nice steak, Linda had chicken followed by cheesecake. After that it was a two hour drive back to Vegas arriving out. The Trump International Hotel just before 5. The parking is valet only, which is nice. We have a room on the 23rd floor, which is rather big, it has a bedroom, sitting area and kitchenette, so Linda is very happy, as it is a posh hotel. We settled down before Linda went swimming in the pool and I decided to try out the gym. The hottest it got today was a 116 degrees, and it was even hot in the car at this temperature as the air conditioning did not make much difference!
We had an evening packing the bags, and then watching a video. Thursday, I was up at 6 and out for a last run, 7 miles I ran to downtown Las Vegas and back. It is quite derelict in the old town. The temperature at 6am was in the late 80's, so sweaty work running. Linda did get up and went for a swim in the pool, just after 7 when it opened. We met our friends for breakfast before packing the final few things and heading for the airport. England here we come.
There are some photos here