Zion National Park--2012

I had never been to Zion's in the fall and it was even more beautiful to see the changing leaves against the amazing backdrop of the canyons and the river beds.  It was also the first time that I remember seeing mule deer within the canyons.

We took the shuttle bus through the park which gives you the option of getting on and off at each of the stopping areas.  This time we only got off at the end of the road at "The Narrows."  There we took the mile hike into the area where the Virgin River comes into the Zion area.

Gary and Jena had to take a
little "power nap" along the way!

View from the side window

View out the front window

View out of the overhead windows.....
beauty everywhere.

The red and the green look so great together...
God did a good job!

Jena and Gary along the Virgin River

 

We saw three deer on the way to the Narrows
and when we headed back there were six grazing along the river.

The Narrows: People can hike through here much of it
in the water itself.  The picture above and below are
from about the same spot but because of the light and
the way the camera focused I could not get all
of the cliffs to show in the same picture.
Interesting!

Checking out the hallow tree
beside the path....Jena is laughing
but she can't reach it so that
I could take her picture through
the whole.
Nature is full of little fun things
like hallow tress.

The setting sun as we left the National Park

Some of the interesting things you see on the trip are man-made.

We saw this on the way out to Zions and stopped to get pictures

on the way back.  It is a Shoe Tree.  Why anyone would start something

like this is beyond me, but there it is and judging from the

amount of shoes on it and falling down the hill behind it

many people have dropped their shoes to be a part of this display.

Crazy!

That ended Friday.  We all went to bed early that night after the late night before and lots of hiking .

Ghost town-Grafton

 

After crossing the bridge, we drove out into the countryside following the signs posted for Grafton. The road turned from newly paved into an older road and then into a dirt road. We kept heading on. Then the road started to be very winding and narrow and bumpy. It occurred to me that perhaps you can't drive a motor home out to this place. However at this point, there was no place to turn around so we kept going forward. Luckily we didn't pass another car because there would not have been room on much of the road.

It was an adventure, but I was so glad we went. We stopped first at the town's cemetery. Mounds of graves barely dug into the hard ground. Names of those who died as they tried to build a life in the difficult conditions around the Virgin River. One family lost five family members to illness one year and then lost two other daughters on the same day the next spring due to an accident "on the swing". So sad. There was a sweet feeling there despite the sadness and dirt and rock.

Our "4-wheeling" RV

I think the town existed during the 1860's if I remember correctly. People left their town and gather together in large towns for awhile due to Indian troubles and then went back hoping to have better luck then a few years later left the town for good.

The town was down from the cemetery. We took a minute and had lunch and then visited the few homes and the Church/school which have been restored and preserved. Here is Grafton:

A farm home

A nearby barn or shed

A look from the first home toward the "main part of town"

The school/Church/community center
notice the bell tower on top

Someone had placed these old shoes with a flowe
on the top step of the school

This is in the doorway of the house next to the school

So, I told Gary that we needed a "romantic picture"
in the doorway since this is in style at the moment.
Gary agreed but then started laughing as we waited and
waited for Jena to take the picture.
By the time the picture was taken, Gary was tipping back and
I am just about to lose my balance...so much for romance!

house across the street

A simple fence

a tree swing

And since I am into bridges, here is shot of another type of bridge....


Crossing over a tiny stream to get to a house

 

Other interesting things along the road:

 

A pioeer trek getting started for the weekend.
I am thinking that they are camping near Grafton
as we saw an area with lots of cars in the middle
of nowhere.

If you are ever heading to Zion's, put this on your travel plans!

 

UEA weekend and Aladdin

You might wonder what they have in common but that is what we have done for the past 4 days( okay I started this post last week but just am finishing it today.  This refers to the weekend of Oct. 18-21).  We headed to St. George on Thursday during the traditional UEA weekend (a time teachers receive training at State workshops for two days---although they apparently don't take roll because we ran into one of the high school teachers in our stake down in St. George with his family on vacation.),  We took our motor home for the last planned trip of the season.

The weather was amazing although a bit cold at night which gave us a chance to try our heater (worked great).  We left Thursday morning, checked into the RV park, took a back stage tour of Tuachan theater, had a buffet dinner there, saw the show (seats five rows back--great!), went to Grafton ghost town, toured and hiked and the Zion National Park, went to a flea market and rode a camel that was in Aladdin, went to Snow Canyon State Park and played in sand dunes and hiked on petrified sand dunes, swam, took walks, and relaxed.  It was all awesome and amazing.

That is the short version---if you want the long version you will need to come visit so I can show you the 390+ pictures that we took.  Here are a few of them off of our camera.  I have others on my new phone but I can't figure out how to download them and Gary isn't here.  I will post a few of those later.




traveling down in style!
 

Our first camping spot at Temple View RV Park.  We checked in on Thursday afternoon but when we came back at 11:15 p.m. from the play this spot was taken so after a phone call we were assigned to one of the few remaining spots in the park.  RV camping is not camping---it is more just parking!!

The St. George Temple--
we were about 2 miles away and we didn't
actually have a temple view from our spot, but you could see
it from across the street.  We spent some time there on Friday up close.

We  couldn't take pictures during the performance of "Aladdin" but were able to take some pictures of the sets, etc. during the backstage tour.  They are on my phone and I will post them later.  It was fun to be able to see the many scenery and props before they were on stage and to learn how they moved the scenery on and off the stage and other "behind the scenes" stuff.  We got to see many piece of clothing that the actors and actresses would wear. 

While on the tour, I noticed a young woman and immediately thought it was Jennifer Chenn.  However since I haven't seen Jennifer since she was 12 or so when her family was living for the summer in Hong Kong, it was hard to be sure.  I have seen her parents from time to time over the years and we exchange Christmas cards , so I might have seen pictures, but 20 years is a long time.  I watched her with her husband and family as we did the tour and one time I noticed her looking at me in that same "do I know them" look.  That gave me courage to approach her.  It was so fun to talk to her.  She too remember us from that time in Hong Kong.  It is a very small world. (Jena also ran into a friend from school at the performance that night.  You really can't take Jena anywhere without running into someone who knows her.)

The theatre in St. George is called the Tuachan Theatre.  It is a large outdoor theatre built into the mountain cliffs west of St. George.  The setting allows for large and amazing things like live horses and camels coming across the stage.  We sat five rows back in the middle in great seats.  They even had a flying carpet scene where the carpet with Aladdin and Jasmine flew over the audience. If you ever have a chance definitely take it to see a production there.  Next year they will be doing "Mary Poppins" and "Camelot".  I think we are making it our UEA tradition to be there.

We haven't made any specific plans for Friday and Saturday--we thought we would just play it by ear.  We enjoyed slow mornings and busy days.

Friday after a brief stop at the St. George Temple and the visitors center, we headed toward Zion National Park.  Our first stop however was a ghost town, Grafton, Utah.  I had always wanted to see a "ghost town" so was excited to find that there was one near Rockport, Utah.  The directions indicated that we needed to turn on "Bridge Road", which made it even more fun for me because I am on this whole "bridge" kick at the moment.  I like bridges.  Here is a shot of the RV crossing on the one way bridge (I got to run across the bridge to take these pictures.  For historical accuracy, these pictures were taken on the way back from Grafton.)

The view up the Virgin River

(It was getting to be too long so Grafton will the on the next post.  :)    )