Monday, October 19, 2015 (Antelope Island State Park, Salt Lake City, UT)

We had a pretty laid back day today. We were having our morning coffee when I noticed some wildlife outside...yup, a couple of bison were out in the field behind us. Steve grabbed his camera, installed his telephoto lens and headed out. They trotted away as soon as they saw Steve... 

The Annual Bison Roundup is taking place this weekend. It sounds like quite the event and would really cool to see. After the roundup each bison gets checked by the biologist and veterinarian.


A Black Billed Magpie...

He also captured some great scenery pictures. Good morning, White Rock Island...

It's been quite awhile since we've done our resistance exercises, so today was the day to get back into it. After showers and a big breakfast we were ready to carry on with our day just after 11 a.m. All we have on the agenda for today was to go into town, pick up a few groceries and fuel up with diesel. On our way, we also stopped at the gatehouse and paid for one more night.

While I was in shopping, Steve sat out in the truck with the iPad doing some research. He has been checking the weather forecast closely for the last couple of days and it's not really looking that great at Capitol Reef National Park...our next planned destination. Well, the temperatures have dropped considerably from last week...and with temps forecast in the 20's F overnight and highs in the 50's F , with rain, we have decided to leave our visit to Capitol Reef for another time. Looks like we missed the good weather by a week! So we thought that we might head to Zion National Park...time to figure out where to stay!

We were back home around 2:30. After putting the groceries away, I sat down with the laptop to continue working on our blog....while Steve was on the iPad researching. He did go outside and took this picture of another thunderstorm...See the rain run off marks on the ground from last nights storm.
Steve decided to put everything away outside before the rain starts and in preparation for our travels.

After much thought and discussion about where to stay while visiting Zion, we made a decision, not a frugal one, however weighing our options (and our size), we decided on Zion River Resort. I tried making a reservation earlier in the afternoon but they didn't have anything available for a week, so that sent us back to figure out "plan b". There are very few options in the Zion area other than private RV parks. There is another park but the reviews weren't very good (tight spots, poor maneuvering for larger rigs, etc) while Zion River Resort had great reviews. So I thought I'd try making another call to them, got a different girl on the phone...and she managed to get us in! So, as I say, it's going to be an expensive week (especially when you factor in the dollar exchange rate) but we will be hunkering down in Quartzsite for the rest of the winter and we really want to see Zion.

As the sun went down, Steve went outside and captured some great sunset pictures...

Again this evening, we had quite a thunder and lightning storm...along with rain and wind. Tomorrow we plan to pack up and hit the road again...destination...Zion National Park. I've heard so much about it...looking forward to seeing it!