DTravel's Apr 2010 Roadtrip

[DTravel]

I took a road trip in mid-April, going to Zion National Park in Utah and Coronado National Memorial in Arizona on the Mexico border. I got a new camera and am still getting used to how this one works, so not all of these came out very well. (I know it, don't rub it in, hopefully I'll get better over time as I play with it more.) Some of them were "point and pray" shots taken out the car window while driving, others just suffer from too much contrast, some I just didn't get them right.

Also the originals are large, up to 5-1/2 megs each. To address that the thumbnail links below lead to reduced size versions. If you like those previews and want the full size versions, those are available in the RAR files linked to below.

The first set of pics were taken at a rest stop on Interstate 5. Watch out for the Dreaded Moo Beasts.

[DTravel]

Some pics shot inside Springdale, UT, the gateway town to Zion.



The Archeology Trail, a short trail next to the Visitor's Center. Complete with lizard.







Court of the Patriarchs. This lizard was sitting on a corner of the retaining wall around the shuttle bus stop, watching people go up and down the path to the viewing point and doing his push up threat display. "This is MY bus stop humans!"

[DTravel]

The Zion Lodge. As it turned out on the day I stopped here there were several climbers scaling one of the cliff faces behind the Lodge. I managed to get a few pics of them on extreme zoom (#5, 6 and 7). (Which wasn't easy, from the valley floor they were only somewhat visible tiny specks to the naked eye. I wasn't even sure I'd actually photographed them instead of random bits of cliff until I could download them to my computer and look at them on a large monitor.)



From the Zion Lodge I hiked the Emerald Pools Trail to the Lower and Middle Emerald Pools. (The Upper Emerald Pools was more than I could handle.) Some of these also point up one of the weaknesses of digital photography. It was getting late in the afternoon by the time I got here and the extreme contrast between the shadowed lower valley and sunlight peaks was more than the camera could resolve well.



The falls from the Middle Pools to the Lower Pools. The trail follows a ledge that goes behind the falls.



The Middle Pools. Luckily for you people I'm not posting the photos I took of the two French (at least it sounded like they were speaking French) idiots who climbed over the safety chains to stand on the unstable, crumbling precipice of the falls to pose for their friends far below.



Headed back down to the Lodge.

[DTravel]

That was it for my first day at Zion. The second day I started up the Kolob Terrace Road towards the Lava Point Overlook and Kolob Reservoir. An early morning start, which again led to extreme light contrasts. Geographically the road passes thru the middle of the park but much less frequented by visitors. That along with all the trail heads on the road gives it more of a back country feel than the more popular Zion Canyon.



It was early enough in the year and the upper parts of the park are high enough that there was still snow. Enough snow that the last part of the road was still closed since they don't plow it during the winter. (But it was convenient for restocking my cooler. )

[DTravel]

After being turned back on the Kolob Terrace Road I went to the northwest corner of the park, the Kolob Canyons region.



There is a five mile scenic drive here with some more trail heads along it before ending at Kolob Canyons Viewpoint and the Timber Creek Overlook Trail, which I hiked.

[DTravel]

After visiting the Kolob Canyons I went back south to the Zion Canyon. Continuing up-canyon from where I had left off the day before I visited The Grotto. This was the site of the original Visitor's Center for the park. Its also the trail head for some of the more famous hikes in the park, such as the Angel's Landing Trail. Since I am neither a mountain goat nor Spiderman I passed on that particular form of self-torture. Maybe someday, after a lot more working out and conditioning but not in my current condition.



The Zion Canyon has been off-limits to private vehicles since 2000. In 2000 the Park Service implemented a shuttle bus service to move people up and down the canyon. The buses are also used by Springdale to carry visitors from park and ride lots in town to the main Visitor's Center. This is a photo of one of the buses with a passenger trailer used in the park.



The next stop up the canyon is Weeping Rock.



The trail from the bus stop to the Weeping Rock falls is short but steep. Its also worth the hike. (Besides, having a camera to take photos with is a convenient excuse to stop and catch one's breath every few minutes. )



Another lizard.

[DTravel]

The Big Bend view point/bus stop. The only stop in the canyon that doesn't have trails leading off from it it still has a nice view.



The endpoint of the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive is the Temple of Sinawava.

[DTravel]

From the Temple of Sinawava the only way farther up canyon is the Riverside Walk and The Narrows. Riverside Walk is an easy paved trail. At the end of it is The Narrows.



Evidence of those aforementioned flash floods.



Wild turkeys.



Continuing onward.



Dead deer head.



There were small fish in this stream that I was trying to photograph. Didn't really come out as well as I was hoping for.



A shot directly down at the Virgin River.



Squirrel Patrol. I have to admit its a bit disconcerting how unafraid of humans the animals in the park are. I'm not saying they come up to people to be petted or anything that extreme but it wasn't all that long ago that turkeys wouldn't have ignored all the people taking pictures of them or a squirrel would go trotting by three feet away. They never would have let people get that close in the first place. For someone like me who grew up with animals being afraid of humans its both kinda neat and kinda disconcerting to have them be this comfortable around us.



End of the trail. The only way to continue farther is to literally hike in the Virgin River. However at this time of year the river is too full and there is too much danger of flash floods, so visitors are not allowed past the end of Riverside Walk.



Back to Temple of Sinawava and a couple more turkeys.

[DTravel]

That was it for day two at Zion. For my last day I visited the Zion Human History Museum.



Across the canyon from the museum is Natural Bridge. Very hard to see from here but I think I got one or two not too horrible photos of it.



Some views from outside the museum.



Inside the museum.



Another attempt at shooting the Natural Bridge, this time breaking out the tripod. So hopefully a better pic.



[After that I drove out along the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway and thru the famous one mile long tunnel.



One of the tunnel galleries from the outside.



Tunnel entrance



And some weird long exposure shots from inside the tunnel.



A smaller tunnel.



Checkerboard Mesa.



East entrance of Zion National Park.

[DTravel]

Once out of Zion I made my way south along US-89. This took me thru the Kaibab National Forest...


..and across the Navajo Bridge, where I met a few bungee idiots jumping off a perfectly good bridge. Makes less sense then jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.



few pics as I was approaching Flagstaff.