Day 20: Wednesday 14-Jul-1999
Base camp: Kanab, Utah
Excursion: Zion National Park, St George, Dixie National Forest, Utah
Distance: 232 mi (371 km)
The weather forecast for Kanab and eastward was not very nice, so we decided to go west today. We left early and headed west on Highway 89. We helped a guy jump start his car along the way. Reminded us of a similar thing we had experienced while camping with our Blazer in northern Sweden. After a while we hit rain and Per thought we had forgot to close the bathroom ceiling vent, so we turned around and went back to the campground. Everything was fine. Better safe than sorry. The rain started here in Kanab, too, as we were heading out of the campground. We went back the same route again. Now it was pouring down big time. At the junction of Highway 9, we took 9 west towards Zion. As we got closer to Zion National Park the sky magically cleared up.
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| One of the first things we see upon entering Zion National Park. |
As with the Grand Canyon, your receipt is good for seven days. So we figured we could always come back later. Very nice indeed. Spectacular mountains. Before we got to the big tunnel, we stopped and took a one mile trail up the mountains. The trail was very nice and was about 1 mile (1.6km). The kids liked it. It follows a steep mountain side with a deep valley below. There were some interesting cave like parts to the trail which the kids liked. At the end of the trail there was a magnificent view of the valley north of us. The peaks were in the clouds.
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| Erik and Izzy along our first trail in Zion National Park, Utah. |
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| Karl and Mom taking a break by some stairs along the trail in Zion. |
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| The hiking trail took us through a few semi caves. Inside, fern grew, fed by the water that leaches through the rock. |
Per talked to another hiker who gave us tips about what other trails to try in the park. We are definitely coming back! By the time we began walking back to the truck, clouds had started to roll in. The kids liked the tunnel. No wonder you need a $10 escort fee for large RVs. There is not much room here. Once we got out of the tunnel the roads are also very windy and partly steep. Must be tough to climb up with an RV from the western side into the park. We continued on along highway 9 through Hurricane and then stopped when we got to St George (near southwestern corner of Utah). We ate lunch at the Pasta Factory. It was really nice. We ate outside.
We decided to return a different route. We took I15 north from St George. This is desert and very hot. We stopped in Cedar City to buy some food for this evening. We could hear on the radio that the weather had changed quickly. Between us and St George they had hail! North of us, an 18 wheeler had jack-knifed and, along with three passenger cars, the entire southbound lane was completely blocked. We took Highway 14 east, over Cedar Breaks National Monument and then into Dixie National Forrest. We climbed up to 9900ft (3000m) before it levelled off. Very nice and cool up here. We stopped to look at Navajo Lake and then at a lava river with no vegetation on it.
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| One minute in hot climate, next at 8500ft in Dixie National Forrest (Utah). |
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| Poking around in a lava-rock river in Dixie National Forrest. |
We then continued east and passed Duck Creek. We turned around and walked into the very nice state campground and asked for more information. We were so impressed by the place we decided to stay there for two nights on our way to Moab later on and, perhaps, use this campground as a base to reach Bryce Canyon.
By the time we got back to the campground, a package had arrived for Lillemor from her office. It was parts to the laptop. Turned out that it was her old power supply that had died. We're alive again! Today's trip was 232 miles (371km). We ate dinner at the trailer.