10/20 - 10/28/05 Refuge from the Road - Red Rock Wonderland

Photo Gallery

10/21 - We've been in Zion National Park one full day & already I'm overwhelmed by the number of wonderful images I've taken. And I haven't finished processing images from the Mono Lake area. I guess I'll have to stop having so much fun & catch up. But I've picked 3 photos to start with on this page. Each is very different. Together they start to convey the variety of incredible scenery that Zion has to offer.

I spent much of the day today exploring the canyon, taking 3 hikes & 60 shots. Timmy got to stay behind & guard Gypsy. I rather think he was ready for a quiet day at home after all of the time he's spent in eBoy over the last week. We covered well over 1000 miles & we were both ready for a respite. I think this is going to be a great place to spend the next week.

10/23 - Yesterday was kind of a housekeeping day. We moved to a different camp site with much better solar exposure, then made a grocery run into Hurricane, about 20 miles away. As we returned, late afternoon thunderheads gave a very dramatic look to the red rock mesas along the highway. We had a brief downpour near dark, fun for the tent campers no doubt.

This morning I went back up to the far end of the canyon, planning to get up into the Narrows where the Virgin River is the trail. I wore shorts, neoprene socks & rafting slippers for the wading. Most of the river is knee deep or less. Unfortunately, after less than a 1/4 mile, there is a section that is above waist deep. Some folks were making that crossing in shorts or even jeans, but I decided to pass on it. That water was cold. I'm hoping to give it another shot later this week & this time I'll wear my chest waders.

Later I took Timmy on a half mile walk down the valley through the section that had once been the home & farm of the Crawford family. What an incredible place to homestead! The last Crawford born here spent his adult life as a Zion Park ranger and naturalist.

10/27 - Well, it's been a little frustrating here the last couple of days. Monday I decided to hike up the East Rim trail, where I hoped to get some shots of the narrow slot canyons, but that trail was closed for a controlled burn up on the rim. So I took the Hidden Canyon trail only to be sandblasted by an afternoon squall that came up as I neared the top. It was cold, threatening to cut loose & I didn't like the idea of getting sand blown into my camera, so I turned back before getting the shots I wanted. Later I hiked the Watchman trail & got some nice shots as the sun was fading. Tuesday, I focused on getting some shots of the Watchman & the ridge just above the campground right at sundown.

By this time I was starting to get a massive backlog of unprocessed photos. Being down here in the canyon, we lose a couple of hours of sunshine early & late, plus the days are getting noticeably short now. So I've really only had enough solar power to run the computer during the day for work, going on minimal during evenings -- lights, water, etc. Then today we got an overcast day, so I accepted the inevitable & have moved to an RV campground to hookup to the grid. Not as nice as the Zion campground, but at least I'm catching up on the backlog. I've added a couple more here & hope to start working on a Zion gallery soon. I've got about 150 shots to sort through, so it will take some time.

I've been planning to visit the North Rim of the Grand Canyon next, but I guess we'll have to catch it another time. Forecasted lows up on the plateau are low 20s the next few nights. This trailer is just not built for that kind of cold unless we've got an electrical hookup. The only campground up there with hookups closed a week or so ago. So I think our next destination will be in the Hopi mesas farther east, possibly stopping at Kanab, UT, on the way.

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