We hated to leave our campsite at Zion. After sitting by the river with our coffees .. I saw a hummingbird, we finally left around 8h30 with 19.3 degrees under gorgeous sunny skies. Ross wanted to redrive the road we had taken to enter Zion so off we went. This road climbs the talus slope of Pine Creek Canyon in six switchbacks then enters the 1-mile Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel. This road's construction is considered a remarkable engineering feat.
On our return trip, we drove through Springdale and onwards to the west. We drove thru the towns of Virgin, La Verkin, Toquerville. Some very beautiful homes.
Our skies got darker, saw lightning and heard thunder as we approached the entrance to Kolob Canyon, part of Zion, contains fingerlike red sandstone canyons (see photo). Unfortunately with the rain, we did not do any trails. It was again very spectacular and grandiose vistas.
Back on the road, we headed for St. George (pop. 49,663). The skies cleared and we checked in to our campground, a mini-village full of mobile homes and very large motorhomes. We miss our Virgin River but this is only for one night. It has palm trees!!
After lunch, we took Highway 15 west into Arizona to drive the Virgin River Gorge, the most expensive section of interstate in the United States (see photo). It was quite the drive and quite awesome what man can build.
Returning back to St. George, we drove up Bluff Street to the Snow Canyon State Park. Again very beautiful (see photo) vistas. Really enjoyed the different geology... some volcanic rocks. One interesting stop was where names and years of pioneers had been etched in the stone. For example, . Pretty neat.
It got quite hot - 35 degrees - we are not complaining!! Drove back to St. George where we visited the St. George Tabernacle where a very nice lady explained to us how the Mormons had been very important in the development of Utah. We could say that we had seen some of this along our routes. We drove around the Old District containing the home of Brigham Young, one of their leaders in this area who had done a lot to advance their faith.
Back at the campground, it was laundry time and finally we decided to have dinner out at Denny's which was located a short walk from our campsite.
Time to call it a day. Tomorrow is Sunday and the beginning of another week.
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