Zion National Park Part 1 of 5

We decided to spend a week in Zion National Park before heading for Montana. It was 19 years ago that we visited this park and only spent part of a day here that time. Since the weather has been ideal, we walked 9 trails, easy and moderate ones. It was worth every bit of effort. It was handy to have the shuttle bus into the canyon and the drivers were very informative. The only time we used the truck was to drive through the Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel to the east side of the park. Here are just a few pictures of the many hundreds we took.

The next 3 pictures are from the Riverside Walk. At the end of this walk is the start of The Narrows, which unfortunately was closed due to high water. We'll have to take that one next time.

The plants grow from any crack in the sandstone where there is water seeping from the rock.

Along the Riverside walk, which follows the Virgin River.

Make sure to notice the rock climber

More brave souls we photographed through the sunroof of the shuttle.

Seen from our lunch stop.

These next two pictures are from the Weeping Rock trail.

Plants cling to the side of the rock much like the rock climbers do by finding cracks. It's difficult to see, but water seeps from every crack in this section of the mountain.

The rocks 'weep' so much that small waterfalls form. They have done studies and the water coming out at this location went into the rock 1400 years ago.

View from Zion Human History Museum looking up canyon.

Can you see the large, yet thin arch?

There are many lizards here. This one has a blue stripe on each side.

The mountain behind our campsite is called The Watchman.

Desert Wildflowers in and around the Lake Mead Rec. Area

All of the pictures in this post were taken of flowers out in the wild. Some of the photos are from the time we spent here last year. With an annual rainfall of just 3 inches, it's really amazing how any of these could ever survive, let alone put on such a beautiful show. Enjoy!

Our 'favorite' daughter visits us in Las Vegas

We had a very busy week when our daughter came to visit. We started out camping at Red Rock Canyon campground and moved to Lake Mead Recreation Area (LMRA), Las Vegas Bay campground mid week. We explored Red Rock Canyon, the Las Vegas strip, LMRA and Valley of Fire State Park. The last time our daughter visited this area was almost 20 years ago, when she was very young. We went out to buffets and burned off the calories by taking many walks. We took her to places here that we have enjoyed before and had some new experiences. As you can imagine we really enjoyed the opportunity to spend some 'quality' time with her.

Brittlebush flowers growing in a ravine.

Not sure what these are, so we called them desert sunflowers.

Some very tiny flowers growing through the gravel. That's determination!

The following 6 pictures are from Red Rock Canyon Conservation Area.

It's easy to see the layers in the sandstone.

An adventurous rock climber.

A group of determined climbers.

Most of the young people camped at the Red Rock Campground with us are rock climbers. They come from all over to scale the many rock formations here.

The colors are amazing.

Our daughter from one of the vantage points where we watched the rock climbers.

Spring is a great time to be in the desert. This is one of our many 'jigsaw puzzle' pictures.

Beaver tail cactus blooms up close.

View from Redstone in the LMRA.

Looking up at the Stratosphere. If you look closely you can see the rides on each side that overhang the edges. NO WAY!

Claudia and Red at M&M's World.

New York, New York

The next 6 pictures are from the Valley of Fire State Park. Yes, we visited 3 places with red rocks, (Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon, and Redstone) and they are all very distinct in their features and beauty.

Five spot flower.

Chuckwalla (sp) lizard warming up in the very intense sun.

Another spectacular view from one of our walks.

A nice shady spot to have lunch.

Holes carved in the stone by wind and water.

Our daughter taking a break from climbing on the rocks.

A couple of interesting cell phone towers. The palm tree fits in better in this area than the tall pine.