Day 02 - Continued - Bryce Canyon

Here are more pictures of Bryce Point:

Hope you enjoyed the extra pictures.  Until tommorow.

Day 02 - Continued - Zion

We thought you might enjoy several extra pictures of Zion, so here they are.  Enjoy.

Now  Continue with the next posting to see more pictures of Bryce Canyon.

Day 02 – To Zion NP and Bryce Canyon

This morning we left Las Vegas with Zion Nation Park as our first stop before moving on to Bryce Canyon.  To get there we traveled along I-15 through Arizona and Utah, then we turned east onto Rte 9 and followed it into Zion.  After Zion, we continued our trip on 9 (east) through the tunnel and after a short break for frozen coffee with ice cream and espresso; we turned onto Rte 89 then Rte 12 into Bryce Canyon.  Tonight we stay at the Ruby Inn.

Along our way today, we traveled through the desert and had some very nice scenery.  We had mountains in the background and desert in the foreground.  We even passed a section which had a number of Joshua Trees.  Although we are traveling at a pretty good clip, Carmen was able to get a couple of pictures of the “trees”. 

We traveled along the Virgin River, which actually runs through Zion and passed several towns along the way.  Of course, just before we leave Nevada, several towns exist because there is no gambling once we leave the State.  Also, we pass a number of horses, cattle, llama, buffalo, a coyote (which almost became road kill) and other animals.

We enter Zion, leave the tour bus, and hop onto one of the Park’s trolleys.  We follow the river and get off at the last stop.  We then continued on foot following the river along the foot path until we reach the “Narrows” where the river runs between steep cliffs on each side.  (You can hike in the river in the Narrows for a number of miles.  There is no exit along the sides because as you can see the side walls are vertical.)

Along the path, we stop to take pictures of several of the flowers, mountains jutting high and of course the river.  We also stopped to get a picture of Carmen posing under an overhang.

And did I mention we saw a couple of waterfalls along the way?

After our little hike, we returned to the bus location via the trolley, back the way we came.  On this trip, we did not see anyone doing any mountain climbing like we have before. 

But the views are still impressive.  After a short snack, we return to the bus and continued our trip to Bryce.  At this point, we are on Rte 9 and in order to leave by the Eastern route, we have to pass through a tunnel which is now a one way road, especially since the bus just fits in the middle of the tunnel.

This section of Rte 9 is impressive with the rock strata crisscrossing with splits and cracks.  One mesa called “Checker Board Mesa” as you can see from the picture. 

Along the way, we crossed paths with a couple of big horn sheep.

Onward to Bryce Canyon and along the way we seem to pick up a cloudy sky.  The view of Bryce Canyon at Bryce Point, elevation 8300 feet, is fantastic.  Yet I wonder how much more impressive if it had been sunny. 

Here are a couple of pictures of Bryce Point.

Because both Zion and Bryce Canyons are fantastic and because we took lots of pictures, I am going to post extra pictures for both parks so you can see more of the views.

Tomorrow after a short hike into Bryce Canyon, we move on to Salt Lake City.

Bob and Carmen

Day 01 - Travel to Las Vegas

It's day 1 and we’re in Vegas, baby.  What more do I have to say? 

We are going on a trip to visit some of the National Parks in the West (USA) and today we began our trip by flying from Orlando to Las Vegas where the tour begins – and will also end.  Since our flight leaves Orlando at 8:30 AM, we began our day with the alarm ringing at 4:00 AM.  We were on the road by 5:00AM and at the terminal by 6:30 AM, right on time.  We were late leaving and late arriving so we were happy our connecting flight in Atlanta was in the same terminal, although at the far end.  And the Atlanta terminals are long.  Got off the plane, quickly moved on down to the new gate (arrive at gate 68 and leave at gate 6) just in time to board. 

The Tour (Trafalgar’s Scenic Parks Explorer) counts this as day one even though all we do is travel to our departing city and do a short get together with the others on the trip.  Not until tomorrow do we actually get on the bus for our first destinations – Zion and Bryce Canyon. 

As I mentioned, tonight we meet with others on the trip and the tour director.  We’ll get the low down of how things will go tomorrow.  Things like what time the bags must be ready by, when is breakfast, and most importantly, where and when to get on the bus.

One of the main reasons we chose this trip with Trafalgar instead of other companies is the stop at Monument Valley.  We are supposed to take jeeps into Monument Valley and we are both looking forward to that.  We are (or at least I am) hoping to get some pictures of the mesas in the valley known as the “Mittens” and other formations seen in many of the John Ford and John Wayne westerns.

Tonight we’ll get to bed early, after a little gambling at the tables of course and taking a few pictures.  Until we have more tomorrow, bye for now.

Oh, before I sign off, here are a couple of pictures of Vegas at night.  As Elvis sings “A little less conversation, a little more action”, so I’ve got to go hit the tables before going to bed.  This is a picture from the Tropicana (where we are staying tonight looking at the pool and the Luxor and Mandalay Bay hotels in the background.  You can see the light ray from the Luxor in the picture.

New York, New York.  My kind of town!

Till later, Bob and Carmen.

Not yet but, Almost ready to go

Well Carmen and I are going on another vacation and letting you in on all our excitement with our blog.  We are traveling on a bus tour with Trafalgar on their “Scenic Parks Explorer” trip.   The trip does not go to all of the National Parks in the west as the title may imply, but we will visit many of those in Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana, and Colorado.  At least the tour we are on will stop at as many as we can in 12 to 13 days. 

The parks we’ll visit include Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Little Big Horn, Black Hills (which includes Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorials), Arches, Moab, Mesa Verde, Monument Valley, and the Grand Canyon. 

We’ll also make overnight stops in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Billings, and Denver.  We did a tour similar to this about 15 to 20 years ago and wanted to do another similar trip.  This time we’ll go to a few different places.

Of course, while in Billings we plan on going to an authentic (at least that is how it’s billed) Cowboy dinner which isn’t complete without the obligatory cowboy entertainer.  I’ll have to see if I have to put on some traditional cowboy duds, at the least a cowboy hat.  Yee Haw!

One of the reasons we are taking this specific trip is the stop and visit of Monument Valley.  I am hoping we’ll get to see the iconic views of the Valley where John Ford made many of his cowboy movies in particular, John Ford’s “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” which had scenes just below the Mittens.  I’d love to get my own picture of the Mittens. 

No pictures today except for the trip route for the tour we are taking.  We fly to Las Vegas on May 31^st, where we begin our tour and we plan on posting at the end of each day if we have an internet connection; if not, we’ll catch up on the postings when we can.  Also, because I try to limit the number of pictures to about 8-10 (or so) on each day’s posting, I may do two postings for the day with the second post having just pictures.

Oh, by the way, if you haven’t seen any of our other travel blogs here they are:

https://www.blogger.com/profile/02504216977029606085 which is our first major trip in the motor home after Carmen and I both retired.  It is a trip across the country from Maine to Florida via Montana and California.

http://bobandcarmengowalkabout.blogspot.com/ is a blog which recounts our trip to New Zealand, Australia and Fiji.  I know not everyone is a Lord of the Rings fan, but while in New Zealand, we traveled through many areas where filming of the movie took place.

http://eis-irisheyes-scottishbrogue.blogspot.com/  relates our trip blog to England, Ireland and Scotland (EIS). 

Bob and Carmen.