Zion National Park again

We visited Zion National Park again, in the late afternoon and evening, and took several hundred more photos. Here are a bunch of the nice ones.

Zion National Park

Jenn & David

Zion National Park

Heading through the mile-long tunnel:

Tunnel

Zion National Park

A couple of the tunnel windows:

Zion National Park

A fun game we play when visiting parks is to look for and pick up garbage. Because people suck, and we want to leave our parks better than we found them. This is my haul from one viewpoint:

Garbage

Zion National Park

We had dinner at a Thai restaurant just outside the park:

Jenn at Thai restaurant

Thai restaurant

We’ve seen a couple of restaurants that have checkboxes for tips. I wish every restaurant would do this; it’s so much more convenient:

Thai restaurant

(Bringing an ApplePay terminal to the table is even nicer. Better yet, how about paying a living wage and getting rid of tipping, but this is an improvement over having to do the math.)

Back into the park:

Zion National Park

Back through the tunnel:

Tunnel

Zion National Park

The smaller tunnel:

Zion National Park

Jenn & David

Cactus

Zion National Park

Video

Video: timelapse of truck driving in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument

We drove our truck in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, along Burr Trail Road to the Singing Canyon, a delightful little slot canyon that is easy to access from the road (most require a several mile hike to reach). This is a timelapse of driving to and from there, with lots of interesting rocks on the way. Plus a couple of cows.

Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument including Singing Canyon

We took a day trip along Scenic Byway 12 and Burr Trail Road to Singing Canyon, a small slot canyon in Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument.

The monument is a massive area, almost two million acres, administered by the Bureau of Land Management.

The drive we went on was just a tiny fraction of it; inspired by this article.

The Grand Staircase is a massive series of cliffs, going from Cedar Breaks National Park to the Grand Canyon; here’s an image from the Wikipedia article:

The Grand Staircase

Heading along Scenic Byway 12:

Scenic Byway 12

Lots of interesting rocks along the road:

Road and rocks

Monument sign:

Sign

One of the visitor centers for the monument, in Cannonville, Utah:

Visitor center

Back on the road:

Road and rocks

Another visitor center in Escalante, Utah:

Visitor center

Road and rocks

Jenn & David

Road and rocks

Trying a prickly pear cactus candy snack from the first visitor center (pretty tasty):

Cactus candy

Road and rocks

Singing canyon, so named due to its amazing acoustics, which we can confirm; we had it all to ourselves, too:

Singing canyon

Jenn & David

Singing canyon

Interesting rocks outside the canyon — actually it’s still in a canyon, Long Canyon:

Singing canyon

Interesting rocks

Looking down into Long Canyon:

Road and rocks

We encountered a couple of free-range cows on the road:

Cow

Road and rocks

Rocks

Road and rocks

An enjoyable drive, and impressive slot canyon.

Internet cupboard

I previously posted about our internet services, with a picture of the cupboard above the entry door that contains the cellular modem:

Pepwave modem:

I decided to consolidate the internet stuff into this cupboard. So I hatched a plan to run a power cord from the outlet above the windshield to that cupboard:

Cupboards

I removed panels in those cupboards:

Removing panel

The mess of cables behind the panel in the front cupboard:

Behind panel

I used my drill with a large bit:

Drill

…to cut a hole in the panel:

Hole

…to fit a grommet:

…for the power cord, which I pulled through by tying a strap to it:

Cord

Getting the cord through the small gap behind this speaker was rather tricky (I lost a bunch of skin):

Wire

…but I managed in the end:

Cord

I installed another grommet in this panel:

Grommet

The cord then plugged in to the power outlet (the front TV also plugs in there, and for some reason the top outlet only receives power when the ignition is on… maybe I should plug my dashcam into that?):

Power connection

The other end of the cord has a power strip with electrical and USB outlets:

Power

Then I moved the other internet devices into the cupboard:

Internet cupboard

In addition to the modem, it contains the MiFi hotspot:

MiFi

The power strip:

A fan to cool the modem, as it gets rather hot:

Fan

And the security camera base unit, that has an Ethernet connection to the modem:

Camera base

I subsequently removed the door of this cupboard, since I was leaving it open for airflow:

Internet cupboard

It’s not super tidy, but it’s nice to have everything in one place.

Pipe Spring National Monument and Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

A day trip to Pipe Spring National Monument and Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, amongst other places.

Pipe Spring National Monument sign:

Pipe Spring National Monument

Visitor center:

Visitor center

Diorama:

Diorama

Exhibit:

Exhibit

Outside, behind the visitor center:

Mountain

Sign

Old cart

Bridge

Display

Building

Inside

One chicken wandering around:

Chicken

Longhorn bull:

Bull

Building

Roof:

Building roof

Cart

The main building:

Building

The building was closed, but I peeked through the gate:

Inside

The spring goes through that building, and out the side:

Spring

Into a pond:

Pond

Wagon:

Wagon

Some interesting rocks on the drive to the sand dunes:

Mesa

Interesting rocks

Tourist trap cave:

Tourist trap cave

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park:

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

Coral Pink Sand Dunes

David

Coral Pink Sand Dunes

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

We stopped for some food at Thunderbird Restaurant, “Home of the Ho-Made Pies”:

Thunderbird Restaurant

Info:

Info

Dessert menu:

Restaurant decor:

Restaurant

BLTs:

BLTs

We had pie slices for dessert, and got a whole pie to go:

Pies

Pie

We went back there another day for dinner:

Chicken Alfredo

Chicken cordon bleu burger

More interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Rock shop:

Rock shop

You guessed it, more interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Video

Video: timelapse of truck driving through Cedar Breaks National Monument and Utah rocks

A timelapse video of driving our truck through snowy Cedar Breaks National Monument, then out and along highways towards Cedar City, enjoying the many interesting colors and shapes of Utah rocks and scenery.

Cedar Breaks National Monument

We visited Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah. A fairly basic park, without a visitor center yet (they are building one).

It’s at 10,000 feet, so was still snowy around the end of April. It is the highest part of the Grand Staircase.

Sign

Snowy amphitheater:

Snowy amphitheater

Cedar Breaks

Jenn and David

Snowy meadow:

Snowy meadow

Snowy amphitheater

Cedar Breaks

Snowy

Another viewpoint:

Viewpoint

Cedar Breaks

Bryce Canyon National Park

We visited Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah:

Bryce Canyon

The entrance station:

Bryce Canyon entrance station

Bryce Canyon visitor center:

Bryce Canyon visitor center

A map and model:

Bryce Canyon visitor center

An interesting idea: donation boxes by state and country:

Donations by state and country

We drove to the far end of the park, and used an audio tour feature in the NPS app (though it didn’t work reliably, so we missed some of the snippets):

Audio tour in NPS app

A bunch of photos of Bryce Canyon from various viewpoints:

Bryce Canyon

Selfie

Bryce Canyon

Bird

Bryce Canyon

A long trail into the canyon (we didn’t partake of it):

Trail into canyon

Trail

A balcony at the end of the trail:

Trail

The other side of the balcony:

Window

Bryce Canyon

More National Park stickers on our coach:

National Park stickers

Red Canyon

We passed through Red Canyon in the Dixie National Forest in Utah several times.

It has some impressive rock formations:

Red Canyon

A couple of drive-through arches:

Red Canyon

The Red Canyon Visitor Center (which was closed when we stopped by, but we got selfies with Smokey anyway):

Red Canyon

Jenn and David

Red Canyon

Another day, driving towards the canyon again; a sign for “Scenic Byway 12, All-American Road”:

Scenic Byway 12, All-American Road

Red Canyon

Driving back the other way at sunset:

Red Canyon

Zion National Park

We visited Zion National Park in Utah. A couple of times, actually. For this first visit, we drove through the park, then took shuttle buses along the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive (cars are not allowed along that road most of the year).

The road changes color as you enter the park:

The road changes color in the park

Zion sign:

Zion sign

Interesting rock patterns:

Interesting rock patterns

Rocks

A short tunnel:

Small tunnel

Tunnel exit

Rocks

The second tunnel is 1.1 miles long, with no lights inside, other than a few windows into the canyon:

Long tunnel

A glimpse of the canyon out one of the windows as we pass by:

View from long tunnel window

Long tunnel

Rocks

We stopped for lunch just outside the park:

Lunch

Then walked to the visitor center:

Walking to visitor center

Unusual to have a walk-through entrance station (in addition to the usual drive-through one):

Walking to visitor center

The visitor center:

Walking to visitor center

We don’t have to pay to enter each of the parks, thanks to our America the Beautiful annual pass, but we more than make up for that in buying postcards and other goodies at the park stores:

Park store