Zion National Park

Zion National Park

Today we spent the day hiking in Zion. This is a very unique place, it's an incredibly beautiful park  but you can only drive through part of it. Zion has a free shuttle service that takes you where you can't drive. The shuttle service runs in both directions every seven minutes and takes you to all the trail heads in the park.We drove in and parked at the museum and spent the rest of the day hiking and riding the shuttle.

The trails here are really fun, we took two easy hikes, the River Walk and the Weeping Rock Trail. The Weeping Rock trail leads to a series of cliff side springs above an overhang, the water drops in droplets that just glisten in the sun. We than took the Emerald pools Trail, that was a moderately difficult trail and leads to a series of three small waterfalls, the water seeps through the canyon ceiling, and falls down through the rock, you walk right through the mist, the walls of the canyon are hanging gardens of moss and flowers. The last pool has a white sand beach and towering cliffs rising above it, it's just breathtaking. We also took the Canyon Overlook Trail, another moderately difficult trail with a very steep incline, and a very high and narrow path, it lead to a beautiful lookout over lower Zion Canyon.This is one of the most beautiful National Parks we have ever been in, I sure hope that you enjoy our pictures.

Zion National Park

 Zion National Park

 Zion National Park

Emerald Pools Trail

Richard needing an asthma break

Emerald Pools Trail

Canyon Overlook Trail

Canyon Overlook Trail

Pa'rus Trail

Beautiful Death Valley

Welcome to California (Death Valley)

Sorry but we have been off line for the last two days because we were in Death Valley, we had full phone service but no wifi. I had some misgivings about going to Death Valley because it had been so hot in AZ. but the weather was beautiful, sunny, windy, and hot during the day and cool and breezy in the evening. We toured Scotty's castle, did a lot of hiking in the canyons and down on the salt flats. This is such a beautiful, quiet place, we both hated to leave but the gas prices are so high and the sights are so far apart,the park is huge, each time we come back we try to see a different area of the park. Today we are heading into Utah.

View of valley floor

Devils golf course

Chris on the Bad Water Basin

Texas Spring Camp Ground

Scotty's Castle

Scotty's Castle

Scotty's Castle

Scotty's Castle

Golden Canyon Trail

Golden Canyon Trail

Golden Canyon Trail

Hidden Bridge Trail

Hidden Bridge Trail

Hidden Bridge Trail

Leaving Sin City

It's a beautiful morning, sunny but cooler then it has been, and we are packing up to move along. We are heading to Death Valley, hope the cooler weather holds out for a day or two. I have no idea as to cell coverage in that area. We have certainly been surprised by the coverage in some of the areas we have been so far so you never know. So if we don't have coverage we will be off line for the next couple of days.

I'm ready for some more desert knee driving.............

A dam tour

Today was a laid back kind of day. Rich got a haircut and I did some house cleaning and laundry. In the afternoon we did a tour of the Hoover Dam. The new bridge was really awesome, we were able to walk across it. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

 Turbines in The Power Room

Tunnel to the Power Plant

 View from the new Bypass Bridge

New bypass bridge

Hoover Memorial

It's Vegas Baby

   

We arrived in Las Vegas around 11:00 am, our first stop was the pawn shop featured on the cable show Pawn Stars. I was hoping to see my favorite star Chumly, but they only show up for filming and we were there to early, they were going to film at 2:00 pm. We spent the rest of the day on the strip and downtown on Fremont St. We have been here before, but I have never been downtown,  WOW, what an incredible place. Every body should come here at least once in their life. The downtown area comes alive after dark, there were live bands playing on every block, dancing in the streets, magic shows, show girls walking around in their beautiful costumes and the light show, it's like an adult Disney Land. What a blast, we must have walked ten miles.

When we left to return to the RV Park we noticed our taillights were out, we pulled into a gas station and four young men came over and offered their help, as soon as they left another man offered help than a young woman gave us her flashlight, we managed to fix the problem, but also learned a good lessen about the kindness of strangers.

We are staying at Sam's Town Casino and RV Resort, just a few miles from the strip. We hope to tour the Hoover Damn tomorrow.

 Walk along the strip

 New York

Paris

 Luxor

???

Up To 5000 a day visit the Pawn Shop

 waiting to enter

Inside the Pawn Shop

Chris and the Boys

 Fremont Street

Zip Lines on Fremont Street

 Street dancing

 Fremont Mall

Light Show

Light Show

Some catch up........

We are back online again. We are in Las Vegas. But first I'll post some pictures from the last couple of days.

We Finally got some relief from the Sun with a little bit of shade. 107 degrees the day we arrived here. It's a State Park (Buckskin Mountain) located along the river.

There is a lot of camping along the Colorado River, where you can camp right on shore, as you can see in this photo.

This guy was putting on some show.

Mallard

Mallard

Quail

Some of our neighbors her in the campground. Besides the birds above, the campground was full of White Tail Doves, so many that sleeping in was out of the question.


We went to the Desert Bar which was an experience. You can Google to get more information and pictures.

Entrance to the Desert Bar

Inside Bar

Outside Area

Hwy 95 Band

Open Air Ladies Bath Room

Ladies Room

We did not have Internet at the State Park so our last post was made from a laundromat in Parker AZ. While waiting for the laundry I somehow managed to lock the car keys in  the car. OUCH!  I was prepared to look for a locksmith to help us out when Chris reminded me that prior to this trip we signed up for Roadside Assistance. The initial thought was that towing a motor home 50 miles out of the desert would cost hundreds. So after a five minute phone call, a 30 minute wait, we were back in business. 

On the way back from our laundry chores we stopped at the Blue Water Casino. After signing up for their club card we again received some nice promotions. We each got $10 in gambling and a $9.95 lunch buffet. Got to love these casino's.