Got to Zion National Park today, good parking spot, waited about an hour to shuttle up to see the Weeping Rock. Just beautiful!
Forest fires in part of Zion Canyon made the park a bit smoky today. Still amazing views with a camp fire smell to boot!
So the west is under extreme heat warnings all over the place, and this little combination is what’s keeping us refreshed in the evenings! Big thank you to a doctor i know for pointing us in the right direction. Cheers from Hurricane Utah!
100 degrees today up on the rim trail!
We started the day at the bright angel trail head. Our first trail hike that lead us down to towards the canyon floor and Colorado river. The first rest spot is 1.5 miles down, i think we made it half way there and turned back which was a good idea considering the conditions.
From there we caught the red line shuttle to Hermit’s Rest with a quick stop at the Abyss, a 3000 ft drop off! Steep!
After a quick snack at Hermit’s rest we walked 1.1 miles to Pima point, a long hot walk, but an easy one… we had just enough water.
Driving into south rim grand canyon from Flagstaff was a 1.5 hour breeze. Not much to see along the way besides some turbines and the occasional dust twister… but still beautiful country as its so different from central va. Lots of elk crossing signs add a little excitement as well!
Getting into the GC was easy and we got to use our America the Beautiful park pass for the first time so we got more breeze as we scooted into our rv spot. Looking forward to hunkering down for a few days.
We succefully picked up the RV and made it to Flagstaff!
However, it was not without numerous issues that threatened to derail plans right from the get go. One might even say we were seatching for another rv on the fly, yes that was a true statement. It turns out an rv generator heat threshold for operating properly is 118 degrees which is exactly the temp in Phoenix! So we had no generator but rolled the dice and headed for cooler temps as suggested by the rv mechanics.
We cruised into Flagstaff where the temps were a cozy mid 80’s, and down to 75 at night. Very nice, Flagstaff seems like a great place for a vacacation, beautiful tall pines, tall mountains, clean mountain air, and only a liytle over an hour from the grand canyon south rim.
And lots of walmarts to chose from, just be sure to use yhe oversized vehicle entrance, the normal is a little tight Clark!
Ultimate Walmart Survivors!
The old saying “but, it’s a dry heat” really does make a difference though… no humidity, no sweat, no towels needed after a swim even! Speaking of swimming, turns out that was a bad idea as the high heat is promoting parasitic growth, eeeewwwwweeee!!!
It’s so hot here the Phoenix airport is considering cancelling flights… looks like we got lucky getting in when we did. On to Flagstaff after crash course in RV operations, and hopefully no more than 2 hours at Walmart!
A busy morning but we made it, on time! There were some tears, minor cat scratch wounds, but all in all a major success. Happy Father’s Day!
What bravado for only 1 post, but we’ll do our best to capture our adventure with beautiful poetry, clever haiku’s, and of course goof photography as we make our giant 3,500 mile loop around the western part of the good old US of A!
Stay tuned… our adventure begins Sunday morning, June 18!
Cheers:)