Well that was an exciting morning. There was an ATV rental on site at the campground so we went there straight away when they opened at 9am. We rented a 4 person side by side ATV. It was super sun!! Surprisingly it was our first time ever renting something like this despite talking about it whenever we come across sand dunes.
At first we were bummed that it was rented as a “tour” but it still ended up being a blast!
Edwin drove the first leg with Isabella in the front. We went on a little “slot canyon” walk in the beginning of the tour.
I drove the 2nd leg and it was more fun that I thought it would be twisting and turning through the more vegetative part of the sand dunes. Then we switched again and Edwin drove till we got back to the big fat sand dunes. We knew it was about to end so we did a quick Chinese fire drill and I got to drive for a few minutes up and around the rolling sand dunes myself 🙂 That was definitely worth it, glad we did this today.
The rental was about 2 hours so when we got back we ate a little snack but then went back out to the sand dunes so we could run around them ourselves. And of course we wanted to get Daisy out there too running around especially before we went into Zion and she’d be stuck in the car most of the next few days. And check out this picture somebody took as we were walking up the sand dune. Ya think Daisy was happy to be out running around? (thank you again for taking that pic on your own and then just air dropping it to us 🙂
This sign made us stop and we picked up a HO MADE thunderberry pie.
On the way in to Zion we passed by a huge treat and caught a glimpse of a golden eagle. The first one I’ve ever seen in real life in the wild. Very cool. The reason we were able to see it is because it was scavenging on a deer carcass on the side of the road. We actually pulled over and walked back down the road to get a better look, but as we were getting closer a car from the different direction stopped right in front of it and it flew away. How cool it was to see that.
We entered the east side of the park in Zion. Zion National Park. 15th National Park. There is a 1.1 mile tunnel with low clearance separating the main canyon of Zion with the east side of the park. We entered the park at 4pm but it was too late to get “escorted” through the low clearance tunnel (large motor homes must be escorted one-way through the tunnel because of the height of the sides of the tunnel) Wwhich was fine because we checked out Checkerboard Mesa on the East side of the park and camped right outside the park. It was a really clear night and the stars were amazing, but it was a cold night too.
I haven’t really talked about the night sky this past week. It’s been incredible! The moon has been getting smaller each night and the dark sky here in Southern Utah is really something. There are so many stars. So much input, that I’m embarrassed to confess that it is difficult to pick out even the Big Dipper most of the time. At home when your lucky to see some stars the Big Dipper stands out because that’s about all that out there. Here there are so many stars you can see, the Milky Way, everything that its hard to discern. I really would like to spend more time figuring out the night sky. Of course ther is never any internet in the areas where there really is a dark night sky to try and help orient us. What is crazy here at Zion though is I swear I can see the faint dull glow from Vegas (2.5 hours away) in the sky tonight unlike at Bryce nad Natural Bridges.
Competing for just as exciting as the night sky is the campground has a lounge for the campers with foozeball and 6 sets of washer/dryers. We’re going to be home in a few days but we really needed to do some laundry.