ZION NATIONAL PARK, Utah 9/15/17

ZION NATIONAL PARK,  taken from the Visitor Center (where we luckily found a parking place --after driving around a bit)

Hello Blog Friends,   How are you?   I am fine --and still going through a gazillion pictures from our West Trip to Utah and Arizona from September 6- 21,  2017.  This is my 4th post from that trip  --and I've only gotten through a few of my pictures....  ha

Today--I will share pictures from  ZION National Park.  We were there on Sept. 15 on a gorgeous day in Utah...  Zion is absolutely gorgeous --and that is why SO MANY MANY people go there.  We love seeing Zion but do NOT like all of the traffic/busses/people, etc.  For that reason,  I never put this one on my list of FAVORITE parks.

Our favorite parts of Zion are NOT the 'canyon' area where we HAVE to ride that darn shuttle bus up and back...   We did do that on this trip ---but we didn't stop and get off at the various places along the way.  We rode the bus all of the way to the top so that we could hike some of the Narrows Trail --which we had read about SO MUCH....    We did that --and hiked all of the way to the end ---where people get in the water (Virgin River) and hike farther into the canyon...  The Narrows area is beautiful and we enjoyed our hike into the beginnings of that canyon.  Needless to say,  I will leave the hiking-in-water stuff to others!!!!! ha

The most gorgeous part of Zion to us is the drive from Mt. Carmel  into the park  on Scenic Highway 9....   We LOVE that area ---so most of my pictures today were taken along that scenic area...  There are many pull-offs ---so we took advantage of that and took many pictures...

The longest tunnel I have ever been in I think is along that route,  about 1.1 miles...   HERE is some info if you want to know more about this unique tunnel.

Hope you enjoy our pictures today of Zion....   Hope you can visit that area someday if you haven't been there....  Go during the OFF-season (NOT in Summer) to avoid a few of the crowds...  AND--go early early early in the morning!!!!

Scenic Highway 9 into beautiful ZION National Park

Scenic Highway 9 --with Zion's beauty all around us

More beauty from Scenic Highway 9

I took this picture of George as we prepared to go through the BIG tunnel.

Once we got out of the tunnel and started heading down the mountain,  we could look back and see one of the openings inside that tunnel which we had just gone through.  (The tunnel is VERY dark --except for a few of these openings.)

While heading down toward the canyon area below,  we could look back at all of the huge mountains around us.

Another view of the vastness of the mountains in this area

A happy lady enjoying Zion!!!

Our hike in the Needles Area of Zion;  That is a very muddy Virgin River  (after the rain from the previous day)

Our trail along the canyon walls,  paralleling the Virgin River

The end of the 'nice' trail;  From here on, one has to get their feet (and probably more) WET....

Wonder if George was pondering whether to get his feet wet?????????? ha

I enjoyed sitting in the Narrows area --enjoying the views around me...   (Don't know why my hands were positioned like that!!!! ha... Maybe I was getting ready to play the piano on my knees!!!!!)

Another picture from the Visitor Center at Zion  (I LOVE see the flag blowing in the breeze.)

Finally,  here is a picture of US taken along Scenic Highway 9 in Zion National Park,  9/15/17

Hope you enjoyed today's pictures....  Zion really is a gorgeous park.  I don't want to discourage anyone from going there because of the crowds....   Just plan your trip during the off seasons (even though it is still busy then --but not AS busy) ---and go early in the mornings....

Have a great week.
Hugs,

ARCHES NATIONAL PARK ---9/12/17

DELICATE ARCH  

Hello Friends,  Here is another post from our wonderful 16 day trip to Utah and Arizona  (September 6-21, 2017).      We visited the ARCHES National Park on 9/12/17...   Because of the crowds,  we almost skipped this park since we had been there in 2011 --but decided to go REALLY REALLY early in the morning and try to 'beat' the huge crowds...  SO--that is what we did...  We got up that morning in Moab, Utah,  about 5 a.m.  ,  had breakfast and then headed to the Arches.    We saw everything we intended to see and were out of the park by noon...   That worked well for us!!!!!

We had a gorgeous morning to do some hiking at Arches so I hope you enjoy our photos today... We love seeing arches ---so IF you enjoy that,  you are in the CORRECT park!!!!!  But there are plenty of other things to see there.  I guess that is why the ARCHES are so popular...

Early Morning Sun hitting the rock cliffs --on the road to the ARCHES

How many times have you seen a "DOUBLE" ARCH????   Here's one for you --and  we were thrilled to see it  up close and personal.

The THREE GOSSIPS   (wonder what they are saying????? ha)

PARADE of the ELEPHANTS   (maybe that is what the 'gossips' are talking about!!!)

Another nice hike that morning was to the NORTH and SOUTH WINDOWS 

We could hike close to the NORTH WINDOW.

We hiked to the back of the SOUTH WINDOW---but couldn't get as close as we did to the North Window.

After seeing the North and South Windows,   we hiked to another nearby arch,  TURRET ARCH.

One of the most popular rock formations at the Arches is BALANCED ROCK... They had the area closed around Balanced Rock while they were working on it when we were there --so we had to see if from several different areas..

Here's a close-up of BALANCED ROCK --which we managed to get, using  the zoom lens on our Canons.

You could probably give this one several names ---but its  official name is HAM ROCK... (I see a big ham,  don't you?)

The FIERY FURNACE area at Arches;  We have never hiked here --but 'seasoned' and much-younger-than us  hikers love this area!!!

This formation is named  SHEEP ROCK  (but some of my Facebook Friends said it looked more like a Dog).

Look-y here!!!!!   Betsy found an arch just for HER....  Neat, huh?

Our last ARCH of the day is  SKYLINE ARCH.  Even though there were a few people around on that morning,   we were so glad that we did go there --and see what we wanted to see before it got hot and before the HUGE crowds arrived.

I hope you enjoyed our pictures today from the ARCHES NATIONAL PARK in Utah...  Even though we don't like being with crowds,    I would still recommend this National Park to YOU...   We had a great time there.

Have a wonderful week...  We are hoping for some cold weather here (it's been very warm) ---so that the leaves will change to some gorgeous colors --before they just turn brown and fall on the ground (which is what they are doing now)... So far,  it has not been a good Fall season for us..  This makes that trip to North Carolina we took recently even more special,  since (if you saw last week's post) you know how pretty some of the trees were while we were there. 


Hugs to all,