On the Road to Colorado, Part One

Friday, July 3, we hit the road for Colorado Springs.  The Johanson family was in their van, and Nick, Stella, and I were in the Civic.

Stella spent much of the trip sitting on her carrier, watching the scenery go by.  Our first night was spent in Mesquite, Nevada, notable for swimming pool relief from the 113 degree heat.

 Saturday, July 4, we arrived at Zion National Park.  While the kids hung out at the pool with the Bergmans (Andria and Daves neighbors from back in San Diego), Nick and I did the hike up to Angels Landing.

 Looking down the canyon as we started up the cliff side.

 Nick took this picture of flowers that looked like little koi fish.

 We entered the coolness of Refrigerator Canyon.

 Remarkable patterns on the canyon walls.

 Angels Landing is the top of the reddish formation in the middle of the picture.  It is over 1,000 feet straight down on either side.  We opted not to go ot on that narrow fin.  Many others do, though.

 This is a California Condor, one of about 200 in the wild.  We were ecstatic to see one, maybe two, circling around Angel's Landing.

 Nick took the following shots of the Condor as it flew to a perch or nest on the side of a cliff about a third of a mile away.  My new camera has a super zoom lens that magnifies up to 60 times.  At that magnification a steady hand, like Nick's, helps.

 The classic bald head of an adult condor.

 It had a number tag on its wing, but we couldn't read it.

 The condor is on this cliff in the upper right corner.

 Natural rock art.

 The reds in the sandstone are caused by iron content.

 Peering over the ledge at the Virgin River and road below.

 More amazing cliffs.

This is the trail we came up.  Pretty nervy trail builders!

We all took the shuttle up to the end of the road to "The Narrows" on Sunday.  From there we hiked the River Trail a ways.

It's hard to not be looking up all the time.

Susanna rides in style.

We watched a small Wandering Garter Snake hunting tadpoles.

Nick zoomed in on these delicate flowers.

I need to ID this one, still.

Columbine clung to wet, shady cliffs.

An American Dipper drying off on a rock.  These birds walk under water eating insect larvae.

We watched this Plateau Striped Whiptail foraging near the river.

The kids enjoyed cooling their feet in the river.

The very positive Nora!

Sun on the white cliffs.

Nick and I did an evening hike up Watchman's Trail.

Father and son.

National Park deer have no fear.

Waiting for pizza...

and then ice cream.

On the walk back to the hotel, cockroaches were scurrying everywhere.

On Monday, we left Zion under cloudy skies and showers.  Next stop, Grand Junction, Colorado.  Stay tuned!