Zion 5

You ready? This shows the main road through the park. We were just leaving the ranger station to see what the weather and environmental conditions were like. My window is down on this one so you get wind in your ear in one part, but it shows a lot of just a tinge of the places you can hike out here. You may stop anywhere on the side of the road and begin a hike, aside from the ones the park offers.

It has two campsites, South and Watchman. South is tent camping right next to the Virgin River, Watchman is equipped to handle RVs and tents. They're both right next to the ranger station. There are too many animals roaming around at night. I've seen wild turkeys all over the place, coyotes, porcupines, squirrels, deer and scorpions. I know there are rattlesnakes there as well. Bats sleep in the trees in both camps. I've also have seen fresh mountain lion prints in the sand where I was hiking off trail. I hung around for about 10, 15 minutes and then took off. The land is beautiful, it simply hums. It's a geological wonder, where you can see and touch earth that is beyond centuries old. Time, past and present merge.

The Watchman, next to the Virgin River. This is next to both camp sites. The hike to the top is okay, it zig zags back and forth so you don't have to think about how high you really are. The trail is narrow, but the view on the very peak of it is beautiful. The picture was taken while still at the ranger station.

Then we got out while driving up to the tunnel. Don't have any other description for it other than "the tunnel. It leads to Mt. Carmel on the other side of the park and is 1.1 mile long. Solid rock. They blasted it in 19something, 30 or 40. It has three windows so people don't freak while driving through, maybe. Don't know. Maybe they were just a "whoops!" while blasting.

So here are a few pictures on the way there. We were looking across the valley at the rock formations.