Zion Day 1 10-9-11

Glen Canyon Dam

Watchman Mountain from our campsite

The full moon over the mountains

Today was driving day to Zion National Park! We left at around 8 in the morning and had a nice drive. We made a stop in Flagstaff for gas and then drove through the beautiful Painted Desert. We made a stop at Glen Canyon Dam for a picnic lunch on the lawn of the visitor's center. The Glen Canyon Dam is on Lake Powell which is just outside of Page on the Utah border. It is a beautiful lake…it just makes you want to rent a boat and go exploring…well, maybe next trip! After that it was back on the road. The Mount Carmel highway is a nice drive as well…lots of winding, canyons and trees. We had 3 deer run in front of our truck and we enjoyed watching them leap over a fence and through the meadow…they were lucky they did not become hood ornaments. My deer lover Leah would have been horrified! There is a really cool tunnel we have to go through right after we enter the park…it is 1 mile long and it is so narrow, we have to be escorted through and ride down the middle lane. So, finally we arrived at our campsite around 5pm. We stayed in the Watchman campground which is right on the Virgin River. Our campsite was nice and was right next door to our traveling buddies the Renwick's. It was all familiar as we stayed here last summer. The campsite if full of cottonwood and aspen trees with sweeping views of the red canyons above. We spent a while setting up camp and then we had a nice dinner together. Then we attended the Ranger program at our campground which was on birds in Zion. The ranger showed us many photos of birds and went into great detail about the songs they sing and their different characteristics. This ranger was quite literary and included a lot of poems in her talk. After the talk it was straight to bed…we were tired after a day of driving! 28, 40, 44