Day 8: Zion!

Day 8: Road to Zion

About 10 miles before entering Zion, we had to make a pitstop to see the buffalo roaming the plains  (classic!) and pet some darling little ponies. One of them definitely looked like Little Sebastian, a very famous pony from our favorite television show Parks and Recreation.

After our little love fest with the ponies we headed further west and stopped at the Pink Sand Dunes. There we played in the sand and watched motocross bikes ride over these large sandy peaks. Carolyn and I definitely wore the wrong colored shirts since a pack of three bumble bees were following our every move. I guess we looked like bright yellow and blue flowers:-) Eric hiked up and down the dunes and with a finale rolled down the hill, screaming "as youuu wishh..." a family favorite quote from Princess Bride. We stopped and chatted with fellow visitors who were here on holiday from London. It seems that on this American Roadtrip we have run into more foreigners then Americans. One of the best parts if the trip is talking and meeting so many wonderful and interesting people:-) Onward to our climax stop in the roadtrip adventure-- Zion National Park and it was more than we ever imagined--absolutely unbelievable--jaw dropping.

The 13 mile road down to Zion Canyon brought many classic "Ooh's" and "Ahhh's" on just about every curve. We pulled off to eat some lunch and take in this haven (see view in picture below). With only half the day left we decided to take a light hike on Watchman Trail (about 2.7 miles roundtrip). Eric was able to go to the top but in the heat of the day, Carolyn and I decided to relax at the Virgin River and go for a little swim while we waited for Eric to finish.

We decided to set up camp at the Zion Mountain Campgrounds, right outside the park. It was Memorial Day weekend and absolutely everything in the area was booked solid. We snagged the very last site in the park! Somehow we've just had incredible luck along our route. We got to know the camp manager Lisa, who radiated that sweet southern hospitality.  She was just the nicest and most helpful woman, she even letting us take her little chihuahua, Candy, whose bark was commonly mistaken as a duck's quack, no lie. The campsite appeared pretty perfect too, isolated among red & white canyons. But Lisa warned us that, "it's great campsite; really secluded and all, just watch out for red ants, black windows and scorpions." --- Uh, okay?... so as usual, during the evening I took charge to thoroughly hose down our tent with bug spray and just about everything that I was going to sleep in. I hate black widows.

For dinner we ate at the campgrounds pizzeria, which offered a great deal of an ENORMOUS slice of pizza and drink for $6 bucks! Boom! Hunger defeated. <3 data-blogger-escaped-meredith="" data-blogger-escaped-span="">