Sunday, March 13
Up and out early. First stop Starbucks to get our motors running. We're in a little corner of Utah that is on Mountain and Daylight Savings Time. Hurray for Daylight Savings Time (DST)!! Later today we'll cross into Arizona, which is on Mountain Time, but does not change to DST. Nevada, where we were yesterday, is on Pacific and DST. How confusing. I don't think I'll bother to change my watch every time we switch time zones, ST, DST.
It's a beautiful morning in St. George and places east. Sunny, yet crisp. It's higher here, so the temperatures are a bit cooler than the lower desert. This is red rock country – my how we love the colors here. It really is a beautiful part of our country.
As I write, we're driving through Hurricane, UT. The last time we came through, about twenty years ago there was virtually nothing here. A community sprouted up out of the desert in our absence. And little St. George has grown in the past decade to about 85,000 - A real magnet in the southwest.
We're climbing to Zion – isn't there a hymn about Marching to Zion? I think we could reach out and touch the snow on the mountain peaks across the valley. If you've never been in this part of the country, it's other-worldly. I can only imagine the geologic upheavals that created such beauty. The road winds through vertical red and white rock formations of undulating hues through such landmarks as the “Court of the Patriarchs,” the “Great White Temple,” “Emerald Pools,” “The Grotto,” “Weeping Rock,” and at the end of the road the marvelous semi-circle of steep canyon walls dubbed “The Temple of Sinawava.” I cannot even describe the beauty here, except to say it was Sunday and this is where we praised God's unrivaled creation.
Stretch our legs we must – a hike to the Lower Emerald Pool up a narrow red-rock trail was a respite from driving we couldn't resist. The trail led up to the lower of three pools at the bast of the cascading waterfall. We slogged in our hiking shoes through sticky red mud on the trail that led behind the falling water and then curved back the way we'd come on the other side of the horseshoe-shaped canyon. We chose not to climb to the two upper pools, but instead took the fork in the trail that led down to The Grotto, a landmark (?) we never did find, but where picnickers laughed and played at the picnic grounds.
Okay, so we forfeited most of our driving day to nature. Crossing into Arizona, we weren't even close to pulling into a campground before dark (no DST in AZ remember). Instead, we pulled into Marble Canyon (after passing the outstanding Vermillion Cliffs at sundown) at about 7:30 pm. Luckily, there was a gas station, restaurant, and campground at Marble Canyon. After dinner at the Marble Canyon Restaurant, we wound our way down toward the river (Colorado) to Lee's Ferry Campground in the Glenn Canyon National Recreation Area. Little did we know in the dark the beauty that surrounded us when we set up the trailer. No utilities here, but all we needed was a place to sleep.
Until next time,
Pam
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