25) Biscayne National Park, February 3, 2010

Location: On the coast, south of Miami, FL; N25 27.866 W80 20.083

We planned ahead (it could happen) and picked a campground in the Everglades that allowed us easy access to Biscayne National Park. We could visit there while comfortably camped at Everglades since Biscayne has no RV campground, only tent camping on the outlying keys. It was about 25 miles from our campsite to the Biscayne Visitor Center. We tried to pick a fairly pretty day, but it was still a bit cool and windy, so there were few visitors to Biscayne that day. Normally we like this state of affairs, but it was a little problem there; only one other couple signed up for the one boat tour that would run that day. With a minimum requirement of at least eight people it didn’t run that day either. The other boat trips, glass-bottom and snorkeling, were cancelled, also, because of the wind and water conditions.

Biscayne Marina

The visitor center was nice, but the volunteer behind the counter was the least enthusiastic of any volunteer or ranger that we’ve encountered. It turned out, without a boat, our options were limited. We could take a kayak out, but the cold wind and waves made it look too uncomfortable, and there wasn’t a whole lot to see along the shore, near the visitor center, as far as we could tell (mostly mangroves). We watched the movie (the little sign on the desk said there were three, but the volunteer volunteered only one) and toured the visitor center museum, including a nice exhibition of photographs by Brian Trainor. The gallery in the visitor center has a new exhibition every few months of artists who are inspired by Biscayne National Park and South Florida. It’s a good idea to check the park’s web site to find out what will be on view. His pictures were really quite lovely.

Biscayne Visitor Center

Our last adventure at Biscayne was to “hike”. This turned out to be a relatively short walk around the park marina, across the boardwalk by the mangroves, out on the jetty/breakwater, and back. This was nice, and we saw a lot of birds, boats, and vistas. We’ll have to come back when the weather’s better, there’s more visitors, and the boats are running so that we can snorkel and visit the keys within the park. It will probably take two or three days to do all of that, next time.

Boardwalk to Jetty

Biscayne Jetty Walk

We left Biscayne with time for other afternoon activities discussed in our Everglades post. This is our last park before heading home to await the birth of our granddaughter. What a joyous event.

24) Everglades National Park January 30 – February 4, 2010

Location: Southern tip of Florida; N25 23.718, W80 34.984

After getting up and leaving Sugarloaf early, we were set up and eating lunch at the Everglades' Long Pine Campground before 12:00, and there were plenty of camp spaces (We definitely won’t miss that rooster in the Keys). There’s also another campground at Flamingo in the southern end of the park, but it’s oriented more for boaters, and we wanted to be convenient to Biscayne, too. Long Pine is not far from the park entrance, and it’s almost a straight shot from there to Biscayne NP.

Our Campsite, Long Pine Campground in Everglades NP

We checked out the visitor center and signed up for a ranger-led slough-slog for later in the week. Then we headed to Homestead/Florida City (suburbs of Miami, just outside the park) to get some el-cheapo tennis shoes for the slog. They require long pants and lace-up, closed-toe shoes, and while the water is clear and clean (a big surprise, since we always thought that the Everglades was a swamp), there is up to about a foot of muck below the water resting on the flat limestone bedrock, and the sawgrass is aptly named. To finish out the day, we drove the main park road part way down to Flamingo and hiked the Pay-hay-okee Trail before enjoying snacks outside our trailer in the comfortable, 80-degree afternoon, thinking of friends and family back in Alabama where it was snowing that day. A couple strolling by our site told us that their family in Connecticut reported 5 degrees that day. We just hit it right, because a week or so before, it was in the 20s even down this far in Florida killing many fish and manatees. Ironically, the outflow from the power-plant heat exchanger saved many manatees that would not otherwise have made it.

Panorama of the "River of Grass," Everglades NP

Down at Flamingo, we caught two boat tours. One went out into Florida Bay, and the other one went into the back country. The Bay tour took us (the only two passengers on a 20-person pontoon boat) out about eight or nine miles, and we learned some of the infamous history of this area of south Florida and saw lots of birds. The back country trip into the mangrove estuary had about 10 passengers and was a little warmer. On this tour, we saw more birds and some crocodiles and manatees. On the way back to camp, we stopped at some of the roadside exhibits and hiked West Lake and Mahogany Hammock Trails.

There's an American Crocodile in Clearing on Far Bank
(trust me)

BYK and JEK on Back Country Boat Tour

Boardwalk in Mahogany Hammock

We did the ranger-led slough-slog in a light rain. But what does a little rain matter when you're knee or thigh-deep in water and muck? Besides, we have good raincoats. They say that you can do these slogs on your own, but knowing where to head out and how to get back are good things, not to mention avoiding the few deep spots (for the most part). We were the only two on this tour too, but the ranger said that they go even if only one person shows up; rain or shine. There was one spot in one of the hardwood hammocks that we passed through where the bromeliads were very thick, and it was awesome to see. We also hiked around a partially-overgrown ‘gator hole that our tour guide said may have been started a thousand years or so ago (but he’s the one that said the water we were in was pure enough to drink and he would drink it). While we were waiting to meet the ranger for the slough slog we hiked a short way down the Anhinga Trail. There were a lot of alligators, turtles and birds along the trail. We'll have to return and do the whole trail another time.

Bromeliad Forrest

Wood Stork on Anhinga Trail

Another great thing that we did in Everglades was a ranger-led Canoe Adventure. There were two other couples, a single man (his wife was back at camp), and our guide on our tour in three park canoes and one couple’s kayak. This was really fun. It took us about 8 ½ miles, starting at Coot Bay Pond, across Coot Bay, across Mud Lake, into Bear Lake, and through a mangrove tunnel to a take-out point where we portaged about 150 yards to Buttonwood Canal. Buttonwood was the same canal that our back country boat tour took from the Flamingo Marina so we saw some of the same sights from a different perspective. The Buttonwood Canal connects the marina to Coots Bay (though it’s blocked off from Florida Bay at the marina because of some ecological problems that it was causing), which we went back across to Coots Bay Pond and back to our starting point. We saw some roseate spoonbills relatively closely and got to watch a couple (not us!) capsize in one of the mangrove tunnels. The ranger had a process that quickly got them back in the canoe, so apparently this wasn’t his first experience with this event.

Going into a Mangrove Tunnel

Roseate Spoonbill Flying over Coot Bay

Inside Mangrove Tunnel

Our last day in the ‘glades was shared with a trip over to Biscayne National Park, which we talk about in a later posting. But after doing BNP, there was still plenty of daylight, so we headed up to Shark Valley in ENP. On the way there, along the Tamiami Trail, we decided to stop at Coopertown (“The Original…”) Airboat Tours. This was fun, and provided another perspective on the ‘glades. (They provide cotton balls, but you might want to bring ear plugs instead.) It’s actually not within the park borders, but is surrounded on three sides by the park.

Another Airboat Passing By

At Shark Valley, we again encountered the line-up that we discussed in our last posting, but this time, we didn’t have the trailer, and we were able to get a parking spot before too long of a wait. The ranger at the guard shack told us that this is normal on every pretty day by about 10:00 in the morning. We got tickets for the tram tour instead of biking the 15-mile tour route. We didn’t have our bikes with us, and the rental bikes had to be returned too early for us. While waiting for our tram, we hiked part way up the tour route, seeing many alligators, anhingas and other birds. Then we hiked the short Bobcat Boardwalk Trail, which didn’t add a lot to our experience or knowledge but was a pleasant diversion. The tram tour took us through a wide area of the ‘glades with informative narrative along the way. We heard some stuff that we already knew, but there was a lot of wildlife, and the short hike near the base of the observation tower provided a close-up view of some nesting anhingas with chicks. The observation tower is nearly in the middle of the tour route and provides an opportunity to stretch one’s legs and to get a great view of the surrounding miles. The size and shape of the tower and its ramp reminded us of the tower at Clingman’s Dome in the Smokies.

Observation Tower

A Big Mouthed Gator

So it was time to head back home to await the birth of our first granddaughter, but there were a couple more small adventures to discuss on the way.

23) Dry Tortugas National Park, January 22 – January 30, 2010

Location: 68 nautical miles west, northwest of Key West, FL; N24 37.642 W82 52.332

We spent almost 5 days getting to Key West from Huntsville, but we won’t go into all of those details (including buying a new RV). We did stay a couple of days in a nice state park just outside of Sarasota, called Myaka River State Park. When the park ranger suggested we go to Red Lobster for good seafood, we had to strike out on our own to find a place to eat. We were looking for fresh, local seafood.

Our New RV

We also stopped for a couple of hours at Big Cypress National Preserve on our way down to Key West. They had a very good visitor center with a good film and exhibits. It turns out that there is a lot to do in this preserve, and we decided that this is another place that we need to come back to, but we were on a schedule to get to our Key West reservations. However, in addition to the visitor center, we strolled their boardwalk and within a very short distance saw an amazing array of wildlife, including large Florida gar, several alligators, and lots of birds.

One Beeg Alligator at Big Cypress National Preserve

We later pulled into the Shark Valley entrance to Everglades National Park to get some information for our visit there after we saw Dry Tortugas. However, when we got past the last point to turn around with our trailer in tow, we came upon a line of cars that stretched 10 or 15 vehicles from the guard shack. It wasn’t moving. BYK walked up to the ranger at the guard shack and found out that the parking lot was full, and they were allowing one car in for each car that came out. Oh, and there are no RV places available, because they fill those with cars. So we waited until we got to the head of the line and could drive into the parking lot and get back out. Man!

This was snowbird season in the Keys and lodgings, including camping spaces are very expensive and hard to get in the Key West area (news flash, right?). We were able to get a campsite on Sugarloaf Key at a KOA, about 15 miles or so from the dock in Key West where we would board the boat to Dry Tortugas. It was a nice campground except for the rooster that perched in the tree just outside our trailer and woke us at 4:00 a.m. every day. It seems the Key West rooster population is migrating toward the mainland.

Dee, at the counter of the Sugarloaf KOA was very helpful, suggesting a good restaurant within walking distance of our campsite (Mangrove Mama’s) and was even able to name the Cuban restaurant that we ate in years ago in Key West (El Siboney). It is soooo good.

We had to show up for the boat, Yankee Freedom II, to the national park (only accessible by boat or seaplane) by 7:00 in the morning. The rooster had us awake up in plenty of time, but getting enough sleep was a problem. The good news was that the fare included breakfast and lunch, so we didn’t have to use precious time preparing those. We were “entertained” by Deb (note, not Dee from KOA) on the way out (and by several people who only thought they didn’t need Dramamine) with some information about the park and some maritime “jokes”.

After arriving at Fort Jefferson, which covers about 95% of the main island in the park, Deb was also available to lead a tour of the fort. We did that and learned that Deb is the “bird lady” (she has a blog at www.yankeefreedon.com) and had lots of information about the numerous species flying overhead and on the beaches. She also pointed out the burrowing owl perched in the main ammo bunker and their nest in the parade ground of the fort, promising to update their progress on her blog. We were able to make that tour and walk the entire moat wall (about 0.6 miles) around the fort before we headed back to the boat to get lunch. After lunch, we still had time to take in the visitor center, take a self-guided tour of other parts of the fort, and stroll out to the South Coaling Dock ruins. Most of the rest of the park is under water, and we weren’t prepared to do that on this trip (have to come back). We could have snorkeled but the water was at about 70 degrees, a bit cool for our liking.

First View of Fort Jefferson on Dry Tortugas

Arriving at the Dock

Deb Discusses Fort Jefferson History

Fort Jefferson Parade Grounds

Burrowing Owl in Alcove

Moat Walk

Beautiful Blue Waters

Looking through Fort Jefferson

The boat trip is about 2 hours and 45 minutes, each way. On our day, the trip back to Key West was much rougher than the trip out. Luckily fewer people were seasick, because they were prepared for it after the trip out. We were in a 75 or 100-foot cat, and the captain had to slow down to near stop several times to keep from crashing down from the tops of some of the waves. Even so, we were lifted, weightless, off our seats a couple of times. Wheee! They “suggested” that no one sit in the first three or four rows, because it would be too rough. We were the first row behind that.

While in Key West, besides enjoying some of the fine dining, we toured around some familiar and not so familiar sights. For example, we found the newly-opened Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center. It has only been open three years and they have very ambitious plans for the future. It has great exhibits on the keys, both above and below the sea, and a great film. It’s best to call for directions, because the literature—AAA Tour Book and a flyer—that we had was not correct.

From our present campsite, we had about a 3-hour drive to the campground in the Everglades National Park. We were told the checkout time at Everglades was 10:00 am and was the best time to get a campsite. That meant another early morning rising and our friendly rooster did not disappoint. It was off to our next adventure.

22) Cuyahoga Valley National Park, November 15 – November 18, 2009

Location: Northeast Ohio, between Akron and Cleveland; N41 16.681 W81 32.319

We only thought our traveling was over until after the holidays. Our son and daughter-in-law called to see where we were and if we could meet them somewhere on their journey across country as they moved from Philadelphia to San Francisco (two GREAT food towns). As luck would have it, Cuyahoga Valley National Park was right on their path. It is an urban park, located between the major cities of Akron and Cleveland, Ohio, in the northeast corner of the state. There are several interstates and other major roads passing through it, and yet there are several places to hike and find total isolation. The Park Service is doing an excellent job of preserving some wild area along the Cuyahoga River in the midst of city and suburban life.

Urban Woods in Cuyahoga Valley National Park

The coordinates above locate the Inn at Brandywine Falls, where we stayed. The inn, located inside the park, is a farmhouse built in 1848 and has been lovingly restored by the inn owners. It is nearly centered north and south in the park but is on the far eastern border, to give you a little perspective if you head to Google Earth or other mapping application. Besides the twisting (Cuyahoga is an Americanized version of the native word for crooked) river valley, the major feature of the park is the Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath. A couple of the old locks are restored, and a bike/hike trail follows it the whole way.

Inn at Brandywine Falls

Farmyard at Inn

(The chickens worked overtime laying eggs for our breakfasts. DELISH!)

BYK along the Ohio & Erie Towpath

We arrived late in the day, so the next morning, even before getting to a visitor center, we hiked the Brandywine Falls Loop Trail, because its start is adjacent to the Inn, and it is one of the more popular sites in the park. There are five visitor centers in the park, each providing a little different perspective. We didn’t make it to all of them because of the seasonal hours of some of them. The Canal Visitor Center is open year round, has a good museum, film, and restored canal lock just outside, and we got some good information there. The Hunt Farm Visitor Center was closed when we got there, but the ranger was there and let us in for a couple of minutes.

Brandywine Falls

Restored Canal Lock

There is lots of hiking to do besides the many miles of the canal towpath. We hiked the Ledges Loop Trail, which took us through evergreen forest, down below and along large rock formations, past strangler fig trees (reminiscent of Southeast Asia for the kids), and through old-growth forest. We also took part of the Ira Trail out to the Beaver Marsh to try to get a glimpse of some beavers. They decided it was too cold to show themselves, and we decided it was too cold to wait any longer, so we saw none. Our last hike was relatively short to Blue Hen Falls. That is a very pretty trail and waterfall.

Along the Ledges Loop Trail

Tenacity

Blue Hen Falls

A surprise attraction close by was the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. We thought that we could easily get through it in two or three hours. We spent just over 4 hours, saw one of the six floors and never made it to the Hall of Fame floor. We would have stayed longer, but it was getting late. As it was, it put the kids on the road to Chicago and us on the road back to the Inn during Cleveland’s rush hour (after a 4 o’clock “lunch” at a nice brewpub). The traffic was not a lot of fun, but the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was amazing.

Another thing that would have been fun was a trip through the park on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad , but it was only running on the weekends during the time that we were there. So, as usual, we have things that we need to come back to do.

Home for the Holidays, November 4 – November 10, 2010

Don’t worry, we aren’t going to bore you with all of the details about our holidays, but, as we said in our last posting, there were a couple more adventures after we started for home from Zion. We made a short stop at Glen Canyon Dam and went through its visitor center. Lake Powell was down about 50 or 60 feet, and the walls of the canyon above the waterline were bleached an artificial-looking white in contrast to the surrounding red rock. They have an interesting, small museum to tour, as well as some amazing views to see. Despite the issues caused by flooding the canyon, it is an engineering marvel.

Lake Powell behind Glen Canyon Dam

Aztec Ruins National Monument

Location: Northwest corner of New Mexico; N36 50.106’ W107 59.927’

We stayed the night at Farmington, NM, and the city of Aztec, NM is not far from there. The ruins, of course, are very close to the city of the same name. The city visitor center at Aztec recommended some lunch places and suggested that we also visit Salmon Ruins while we were in the area. We hadn’t heard of Salmon Ruins, so this was another bit of serendipity along our way. Aztec Ruins is actually another example of the ancestral puebloans’ culture and is not related to the Aztec culture. Again, each site that we’ve visited provides another piece of the puzzle of that fascinating part of history that we completely missed in school, and the rangers and guides each have their own tweaks to the theories about this ancient culture.

Aztec Ruins

The time period of Aztec Ruins follows and overlaps slightly that in Chaco Canyon, which we discuss later. Physically, this site is located between Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon, but is much more similar to Chaco than to Mesa Verde and is actually connected to both Chaco and Salmon ruins by ancient Chacoan roads. The site included some interesting architectural features including decorative stonework, and the site’s Great Kiva has been fully restored and finished inside to match one man’s (Earl H. Morris) theory of the interior appearance.

Decorative Stonework at Aztec Ruins

Great Kiva

Inside Great Kiva, One View

The Salmon Ruins are much smaller and are privately owned, but the site was very interesting. It is less restored than others we’ve seen, and a large part remains partially unexcavated. The site also includes the pioneer homestead of George Salmon and an informative museum. We got some very useful information from a couple that we met there who had just come from Chaco Canyon and could tell us that there would be no problem getting our trailer over the long dirt road into the canyon, even though the last two miles were especially rough, or getting a camp site. That saved us from making a half-day round-trip to check things out for ourselves.

Masonary Work at Salmon Ruins

Chaco Culture National Historical Park (Chaco or Chaco Canyon)

Location: Northwest corner of New Mexico; N36 01.809’ W107 54.642’

To get to Chaco, from the northwest, as we were coming, one goes through the “town” of Nageezi (but don’t take highway 57 out of Nageezi as the old signs suggest) and follows highway 550 to County Road 7900. The pavement of 7900 ends, and one then follows unpaved CR 7950 into the canyon. There was not water available (some more information that we got from the couple we met) in the Canyon, so plan accordingly if you get there after the water is turned off for the year. There also is no lodge or other place to stay besides the campground. Hotels and motels are available at Farmington and Bloomfield, but it’s a pretty good trip in and out if you want to view the canyon for more than one day. We stayed at the campground in the park two nights, which gave us about 2 ½ days, and we felt (as usual) that there was still more to see and do. You can get a good flavor of the place if you drive in from your motel and spend most of the day there.

Pueblo Bonito from Rim Trail

There’s an interesting small museum at the modern visitor center, several ruins of different sizes throughout the canyon, petroglyphs, and many miles of trails to explore. We were able to drive in, set up camp, visit the museum, take a ranger-led tour of Pueblo Bonito (really good tour), tour Chetro Ketl, and see part of the petroglyph trail all in one day. Besides these, during our stay, we toured the ruins of Una Vida, Hungo Pavi, Pueblo Alto, Peublo del Arroyo, Kin Kletso, and Casa Rinconada. We also did the Pueblo Alto Trail, one of the backcountry trails, which provided amazing views of the canyon from the rim and took us across and along one of the ancient Chacoan highways. Chaco was the center of what is now called Chaco culture, with multi-story, pre-planned great houses being a distinctive trait. Within 50 or 60 miles, there are dozens of other “Great Houses” that are part of this culture, but we didn’t try to get around to those, except for Aztec and Salmon Ruins as we talked about before. There were three other backcountry trails that we thought would be good, but we had turned the horse towards the barn and…

Chaco Canyon Petroglyphs

Kin Kletso Ruins

Start of Pueblo Alto Trail

(trail goes between rocks at shadow)

The rest of the trip home was pretty uneventful, which is not entirely bad. We did get to travel a short distance on the old Route 66 and camp right beside it one night. There were several places along our travels where we crossed this famous legendary American highway.

So we nestled back into our home to enjoy family and friends for the holidays before heading out on more adventures.

21) Zion National Park, October 27 – November 4, 2010

Location: Southeast corner of Utah; N 37 12.1583’, W 112 59.2725’

Again, because of the cold weather, we decided to stay in a commercial campground in Springdale, Utah. Springdale is just outside the south entrance to Zion National Park. It turned out that our campsite in the commercial park was only a couple hundred yards from the campsite that we later took inside the park. From Bryce, you enter Zion at the east entrance. There is a lovely scenic drive, through two major tunnels with vehicle size restrictions. Even our little pop-up warranted a measurement at the park entrance to ensure that we wouldn’t need an escort, due to its width. Hurrying through this part of the park, stopping only at the Checkerboard Mesa viewpoint, our goal was to get a campsite and be well situated before too late in the day. We will definitely revisit the east entrance scenic drive and the beautiful rock formations along the way. We also stopped at the Visitor Center to get our normal data dump on what to do in the park.

Checkerboard Mesa along the east road

The first full day, we decided to go to St. George, UT for a maintenance day because it was still pretty cold. In fact, we passed through some snow flurries on the way there. “It never snows in St. George,” they said.


Then the weather got colder. So, we decided to do “indoor” activities. This turned out to be pretty satisfying. We traveled the scenic road all the way to the end of Zion Canyon and even braved stopping at a couple of the viewpoints. We went to the Zion Human History Museum, watched the movies (good), sat in on a ranger program, and had lunch at the lodge. A good day.

Panorama of Temples and Towers outside Zion Human History Museum

Looking Up Canyon from Human History Museum

After moving to the park’s Watchman Campground (named for the huge cliff face just above it), which is just around the corner from the visitor center, we headed back “up canyon” on the scenic road. We hiked Riverside Walk, Weeping Rock Trail, and Emerald Pool Loop trail. All very neat, and two of the three uphill – Weeping Rock and Emerald Pool Loop. Weeping Rock has several locations where “hanging gardens” are clinging to the vertical walls of rock, while ancient water seeps out to keep them moist. We also caught the ranger evening program about flash floods. Those things are really mean. You don’t want to be in the river bed, slot canyon or wash when there is a chance of rain. Even if you’re a great swimmer (or runner), the wall of water filled with boulders and trees rushing down will do a number on you before you know it. We had heard about these at other parks, but the films they had here were quite dramatic.

Weeping Rock

We also took a few side trips from Zion’s main valley. Outside the park we drove the Smithsonian Butte Scenic Backway. Yes, backway, and given our experiences with back roads, you might think that we’d understand what was in store. But it said “Smithsonian”. How bad could it be? Well, it turned out to be not too bad, but definitely a backway that we wouldn’t recommend for a passenger car. This adventure was on our way to Pipe Spring National Monument, where we toured the fort (also called Winsor Castle) and grounds, visited the museum, and hiked the Ridge Trail. We headed back to Zion, completing a counter-clockwise loop by going through Kanab, UT. This loop brought us back to the east entrance and allowed us to stop at most of the scenic overlooks and viewpoints that we “zoomed” past on our way into the park a few days earlier. Back down in the canyon, we drove up canyon again, stopping at Court of the Patriarchs and the Grotto. It turns out that the grotto is no longer there, which we learned after we spent some time looking for it. We think we found where it used to be.

Along Smithsonian Butte Backway

Winsor Castle at Pipe Spring National Monument

Court of the Patriarchs
(from l to r, Abraham, Isaac & Jacob)

Our greatest adventure at this park was Angels Landing. We hiked up Angels Landing Trail, which was very steep and strenuous. Then it got difficult. BYK made it through the first section of the very difficult part where we were clinging to chains, crossing a nearly smooth slickrock face way above the canyon floor. When the trail flattened out at Scout Point (aka“chicken-out point”), JEK assessed with binoculars the rest of the “trail” over the saddle and up to the landing. It is very narrow in some places and very steep (nearly vertical) most of the way. JEK forged ahead while BYK patiently waited, encouraging others to “go for it”. At one point, the saddle trail (with no guard rails) is about 4 feet wide, with steep drops off both sides of about 1500 feet or so. This is definitely not a hike for those with at least a normal fear of heights or those averse to extreme exertion. But the view from the top is amazing. (BYK will tell you the view from “chicken out point” is equally glorious.)

Looking down on Angels Landing Trail

BYK on Wally's Wiggles
(23 switchbacks in a short distance)

Thank Goodness for Chains
(notice tiny people on trail in upper left corner)

Looking Down Canyon from "Chicken-out Point"

Saddle to Angels Landing

Looking Up Canyon from Angels Landing

A section of the park that we learned about at the VC that is not heavily visited is the Kolob Canyon District. They told us it was really nice. So, after verifying that roads in that area were clear of snow, we headed in that direction. The district is in the northwest corner of the park. While there, we hiked the Taylor Creek Trail and the Taylor Creek Overlook. This was very interesting to see where some early Europeans settled, and we got to hike through some snow and see, up close, a buck mule deer in his natural habitat.

JEK on Taylor Creek Trail in Kolob Canyon
(much more snow was just ahead of us)

Another “side trip” that we made, after verifying road conditions, was the Kolob Terrace Road. This road goes up through the center of the park and is even less visited than the Kolob Canyon District. It ends in a dirt road that took us out to Lava Point Overlook. From there, one can look down on the tops and sides of some of the huge features that we saw from the canyon floor. That afternoon, back in Zion Canyon, we hiked the Hidden Canyon Trail. Another uphill trail that had beautiful vistas of Zion Canyon.

View along Kolob Terrace Road

BYK on Hidden Canyon Trail

By now, we’re thinking of getting ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. With mixed emotions, it’s time to start heading home. But, there are a couple of more adventures before we leave the four corners area.