Saturday, July 20, 2024

Starting mileage: 16900, Miles travelled: 149

We had a slower morning because our canyon tour didn’t start until 11:00am. We took showers and packed up, drove to downtown Page for supplies and WiFi to post yesterday’s blog, and got coffee. As we headed to our Upper Antelope Canyon tour, Laura started to feel nauseous… bad timing. She sipped water and did some deep breathing and managed to make it through the tour, including two VERY bumpy rides across the sandy river wash to reach the mouth of the canyon. The drive to the canyon was like driving in 6 inches of snow at a reasonable clip without regard to whether you slid or not, quite exciting, but bumpy.

The tour itself was breathtakingly beautiful, a high noon tour through the A-shaped slot canyon provided multiple sunbeam views. Jay, our tour guide was a pro. Though the tour was heavily scripted, he shared lots of science and history, taking excellent photos at ideal locations where the light was spectacular, tossing sand to accentuate the sunbeams. We really enjoyed the walk through the canyon even though we could have done it on our own in about 15 minutes instead of an hour and a half (some of us are more impatient than others). The walk back to the van was brutally hot and the danger of Laura vomiting was ever-present but we safely made it back to the tour base with no incidents.

We considered visiting Horseshoe Bend, an extreme oxbow completely surrounding a huge butte, even going as far as paying the $10 entrance fee and eating lunch in the parking lot to hide from the 102-degree heat. Ultimately, Laura was not up for it and leaving the car idling for an hour while two people walked to see it was just not practical. Instead we headed straight for Zion National Park, about two and a half hours away. 

The drive into Zion was absolutely spectacular, rivaling both Yosemite and Glacier. Stunning rock formations, big horn sheep, and idiotic drivers were abundant. We drove the longest tunnel through a mountain we’ve ever seen, followed by stacked switchbacks down into the base of the canyon. 

We arrived at the visitor’s center just around 5:30pm, got our passport stamp and some Zion swag before heading to our night’s accommodations. Since we were staying in a cabin at Zion Lodge, inside the park, we got to drive our camper along the restricted shuttle-only road that runs north-south through the park. We were all excited to be sleeping in the same place for two nights in a row! Our cabin was nestled among some enormous canyon walls as you can see.