USA – the Utah tour
Thursday, 29th August 2019
Set off from home at 09:00 in the morning and got our flight at 12:35 to Las Vegas. Everything went smoothly and we arrived 10 hours later at 2:25 in the afternoon on the same day. We picked up our Hertz SUV and drove the 4 miles to the venetian hotel on the strip, where we had a very nice room. Of cause there were hundreds of slot machines at the complex but also many restaurants, bars and shops. To get adjusted to the time zone and the warmth we went outside for a stroll and found the Bellagio and the Paris hotel. As we could not walk much more in the warmth we went back to the Venetian and had a simple dinner in the shopping complex. We retired at 09:30, it was as much we could fight the jetlag.
Friday, 30th August 2019
Naturally we woke up early, packed our car and had breakfast at the hotel before heading to our next stop: Zion. It was 2,5 hours drive but had some amazing scenery on the way. We did arrive at “under canvas” in Zion before our check-in time but our tent was ready. The complex was set-up in the dessert, the tents were very basic but with a large double bed. No electricity available and lights were arranged with battery packs, which they replaced when needed. As we arrived early and it was still very warm we drove up a bit north to the Kalab section of the Zion park and found some lovely rock formations. We had dinner at the camp, simple but good. We then enjoyed some smores by the campfire and gazed at the stars, which due to the absence of light in the dessert was truly spectacular.
Saturday, 31st August 2019
After breakfast we ventured into Zion National Park. We arrived at 09:00 but already could not get in the park parking but found a place outside close enough. We had to wait 40 minutes for the shuttle bus, jumped off at stop 3: canyon junction and ended up walking the “Paras trail”. A nice and hot walk but brought us back to the visitor centre where we had to queue again for the shuttle buses. Through the rest of the day, we visited the “Patriarchs”, “Emerald pools”, “Grotto trail”, “Big bend” (where we found some deer in the river) and enjoyed ice cream at the Zion lodge. Quite an active day without much hill climbing but we sat in the river for a while at the end of the day to cool off. Back at our tent we ate BBQ spareribs and played some board games, connect4 and scrabble. The sky full of stars was amazing again.
Sunday, 1st September 2019
We got up early but could not beat the crowds to Zion even when we left at 07:20. The queue at the visitors centre was even longer than yesterday. We decided to hike “the Narrows” which requires proper boots and a long stick which we hired at the centre for $25. We took the shuttle bus to the entrance. The walk started of with a paved path but quickly changed into a river. The scenery was spectacular despite the crowds and the water, although cold at the start it became bearable. We walked mainly knee deep but in some places was waist high. We managed to reach the “wall street section” before turning back. On the way Jeroen lost his footing but luckily not the camera. It was quite a tough walk on an empty stomach, so we were glad to pick up a nice burger back at the Zion lodge. We then decided to walk the “Watchmans trail” but we were so hot and tired we gave up after 500m and sat in the river, where we had a nice view of the “Watchman” though.
We had dinner a little later than the other days so no time to enjoy a board game but we were invited to share a table with a couple of nice amaericans, a little older than us but were experiencing the under canvas adventure. Early to bed as we were truly dead beat.
