zion national park

zion national park in distance

petrol station just prior to entering national park

entrance to zion national park

bighorn sheep at zion

bronte on the sandstone

tunnel through the mountain

window through tunnel looking out as driving past

after exiting tunnel and looking back at above window in the rock

a snake on our walk

me standing in the river, nice cold water!

bronte on one of the walking tracks

from a lookout

Sunday 20th June

Today we left Cedar City and headed for Zion National Park in Utah. We were going to be taking a back road to access the park which actually would prevent us from having to track back as we continued to Vegas. The scenery and the drive was fantastic, it had changed so much in the last few days as we are now in the desert. We stopped at a lookout from around 100kms from Zion and could see the national park in the background.

Along the way we stopped at the turn off to the park at this really cool little town/petrol station that seems to have no name! The place was decked out in Indian stuff and was really kind of cute. From there we entered the park and got our map to follow from the ranger. We continued on stopping every few minutes as there was so much to see until we got to the tunnel. The tunnel was built in 1930 and is 1.7km long. The tunnel follows the mountain at a depth of 6 metres in from the outside of the canyon. There are windows in the tunnel that you can see out of as you drive by them. Once we exited the tunnel there was a stop where you could look back at the mountain and see the windows from the outside.

We continued on until we got to the visitor information centre. The national parks main attractions in the Zion Canyon can only be accessed by the designated buses provide by the park. These bus are free, included in your park entrance. We used the map and got on the bus where we hoped on and off as much as we wanted. We spent the rest of the day in the park completing several walks and seeing as much as we could. The park was amazing and you really could spend days and days there. the amount of walks are mind boggling.

We ended up leaving the park about 6.00pm and set off for Vegas which was only 270kms away. The drive was nice and it did not take too long at the 75mph limit. We arrived at the Luxor Motel and Casino as around 9.00pm and parked the car. Checked in and we are staying in the pyramid part of the complex which is cool, but only on level 2. The lady at check in said we could change rooms in the morning, as we have three more days, to a higher floor. The next morning we were moved to level 24 and have a fantastic view of the strip and the international airport. We had dinner in the Pyramid Cafe the first night as we were tired and didn't feel like going out. Tomorrow we are going to walk the strip and check it out, see how much has changed in 2 years and use the facilities at the Luxor, pool, spa etc. The last few days here in Vegas are going to be relaxing!!!!!!!