Arriving at Zion National Park

We drove to Springdale, which is just outside Zion National Park, and found a private campsite with showers and WIFI.

Just down the street from the campsite was a free shuttle that took us into the park to the Visitors Center. From there we took another shuttle, which took us through the park and allowed us to see most of the major sites.  The bus also stopped at trail heads, so passengers could get off, walk around the area and then get back on a later bus. There was a recorded narrative on the bus which talked about what we were seeing along the way, and the driver also called out the stops and told a bit about what was at each one.
 

                                          "The Three Patriarchs" Zion National Park, Utah

 The scenery in the park is magnificent - not so much different from what we have been seeing the past few days, but on a bigger scale. There is also more variety because of the water from the river and other sources. Coming back on the shuttle, the driver's description of the trail at the last stop sounded really good and also easy enough for us to handle at the end of another hot day. It was called Pa'rus and followed the Virgin River. The river looked more like a creek than a river, but apparently it flooded during the rainy season and moved very swiftly, so that it was the primary force in carving out the valley during the past several thousand years.
 

                                                               Zion National Park, Utah

     Along the way we stopped off at one of the Park campgrounds. It didn't have showers or WIFI, but it was much woodsier than the campground we were at. We also chatted briefly with a couple who had a camper with two solar panels sitting beside it which provided their secondary power . The world may be changing slowly, but it is changing.

Elise is still coughing some but seems to be getting better little by little.