Kolob Terrace Road | Zion National Park
Tuesday - 25 June 2002: Virgin, Utah - I am
coming to you today assisted by my new Delicate Arch mouse pad! No doubt, my
prose will be inspired. It is thickly padded - much like this author - and
her stories.
It was going to be another scorcher today in Virgin. DT went for his run
before 8 am and I headed out to the post office. The Virgin, Utah post
office is a mess. They need a serious cleaning session. I sent three packets
and a dozen postcards and I am not sure if the Virgin Post Mistress will
ever find them sitting on top of her messy desk. In one week the new postal
rates go up and the Virgin, Utah post office is without the new stamps. "Oh,
I keep forgetting to order them." A post office just outside Zion National
Park with no post card stamps? Hello. Get it done, girl. Oh, how I dislike
inefficiency.
And how I love a man who vacuums. I came home to find a sweaty man cleaning
- or attempting to clean. DT could not find an electrical outlet that would
work. "No problem", says I (Mrs. Fix-it), "it's just the GFI." Well, it WAS
the GFI, but I could not get it to reset. No problem, with all the
sophisticated electrical systems in this rig, I will just turn off all power
to Goldie, plug her back in and in a few minutes, she will right herself.
Wrong. Now, if it was only the plug with the GFI over the bathroom sink that
was not working, we could have happily lived with it for the rest of the
trip. But the bathroom plug is connected to the TV plug! This was a serious
dilemma! A call to Holiday Rambler was in order. (Holiday Rambler now
answers their phone: "Hi, Terry, what's broken today?") Did you know there
is a separate circuit breaker on the inverter for the microwave and the
bathroom GFI? Well, we do now, and it was tripped. All systems are go. Our
day (and the vacuuming) could continue.
We drove into the little hamlet of Springdale, which is at the gate to
Zion
National Park. We walked through the shops and galleries and had lunch
at
Oscar's Cafe - "If you are hungry, don't blame Oscar". I had a wrap and
DT dined on a chicken sandwich. Friendly hippies work at Oscar's Cafe and
the food was very good.
After lunch we loaded the car with water and headed out to the "far side" of
Zion - the Kolob Terrace Road. The
Kolob Terrace Road is 22 miles long, along the lower and upper Kolob
Plateaus and ends at Kolob Reservoir at over 8000 feet elevation. The road
travels in and out of the park boundaries several times. At one point we
came across a huge black bull in the middle of the road. He was a big boy,
intent on reaching a group of cows down the road.
Views from our drive today: Firepit Dome
Kolob Reservoir
We also went to the fire lookout at Lava Point. There is a
huge lava flow in this area. We never did see the fire lookout, but we did
have spectacular view of the back side of Zion Canyon - where we hiked
yesterday.
Zion Canyon from the west
DT, resting in the 104-degree Zion sun - camped at Zion River Resort
We learned today that it was 104 in Zion yesterday while we
were hiking. We are both a bit whipped today - now we know why.
We arrived home after 5 pm again - tired and hot. Time for the swimming
pool! We spent the evening chatting with our English neighbors - they have
an adorable two-year-old boy with a mop of blonde curls. They are traveling
for weeks in the states in a rental RV. We sent them on their way with
Jake's smoked salmon and a tin of Oregon Hazelnuts... eventually they will
travel through Our Great State, so I want them prepared.
Tomorrow we are leaving Zion, but not sure where we are going.
RV Park:
Zion River Resort
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