Kolob is popular too

Cedar City, UT – Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Kolob Canyons are in the northern part of Zion National Park. It is said to be a lesser visited park even though it's a quarter mile from I-15. Since we're in Utah you have to expect that Kolob is a Mormom word from the scriptures that means "residence closest to heaven". We don't know about that, but with it's pocket canyons and soaring red sandstone cliffs it is a very pretty place.

There is only one road in the park and the lady at the visitors center suggested we leave BG there and take the car. It's a little cool as we're at 6,000 feet, but the sun is shining and we’re tough! We're going to take a hike, but first we need some lunch. We find a nice picnic table in a sunny spot with an excellent view of the cliffs. Our lunch and view were interrupted by two bus loads of oriental tourists that swarmed the outlook and covered up our view.

We're glad that our National Parks are being visited. It is the volume of visitors that helps determine the amount of funds a park receives for maintenance and upgrades. Although we wonder about that because we have visited some obscure parks with low traffic volume that have beautiful facilities. We must learn to be patient with the tour buses (most of the time) as generally they are there for only a short time, while we usually have several hours to enjoy the scenery. Eventually the peace and tranquility will return. But during the time they are there, they sure gum up the works for everyone else. (Note to self, "must work on patience").

To get away from the tour buses and swarming tourists, we take a hike to the Timber Creek Overlook where we enjoy the views of the cliffs and the dry Timber Creek creekbed. From this viewpoint the tourists look like ants, and the views are humbling, as well as awe inspiring. We sit for a while just listening to the silence and enjoying the scenery.

Back down off the trail, we met a lady, traveling alone, that is from Talkeetna, AK. What got us to talking to her was the van she was driving. It was painted up in a tropical theme, complete with a hula dancer in a grass skirt. It turns out that there is a firm that refurbishes mid 2000 year Chevy Astro Vans into campers. They are rented in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Their website is www.escapecampervans.com. She was visiting the lower 48 for 2 weeks and enjoying the warmer weather.

Earlier, in our conversation with the ranger in the visitor center, we found out no campsites were available in Zion NP proper. It appears there is a Utah holiday that lets kids off to help with the harvest, but a lot of families take advantage of this by going camping instead of harvesting anything. We decided that since we had already seen that part of Zion, we'd turn around and head back to Cedar City for the night since some of our more critical supplies were getting low and we wanted to make sure we could be really self-sufficient for the next week or so.

Tomorrow we head for Bryce Canyon. The last time we were there it was cold and rainy, plus we only spent one day there. The weather looks much better this time.

When we returned to BG, we could tell Mocha didn’t even care that we’d been gone.

BG Miles Today	43	BG Total Miles	10840
Eat Out total $	1546.23	BG Total Fuel $	6268.91
Entertainment total $	1401.63	Total Camping $	1177.03
E Miles Today	11	E Total Miles	3058.81
E Total Fuel $	626.44	Day # of Trip	141