Monday, October 26, 2015 (Zion River Resort, Virgin, UT)

Well, not much exciting to report today...especially after the last five days! We have one final day here and decided to take advantage of the laundry facilities and full hook-up to take care of some chores. So we had a fun filled day doing laundry, vacuuming, flushing tanks...and generally getting ready to hit the road tomorrow.

Shortly after 2:00, though, we'd pretty well finished our chores...time to enjoy the pool and hot tub! So while I finished putting the laundry away, Steve headed over...he took a couple of pictures of the lodge/office before going to the pool...

 Steve in the pool...

 ...and I'm in the hot tub...

After a couple of hours lazing in the sun and going in and out of the pool and hot tub, we headed back to the trailer. We sat outside enjoying our happy hour and then retreated inside for dinner. Then it was time for Steve to get back to all the pictures he took yesterday. Once he was finished, it was my turn...get the blog post done!

We've had a great time here...tomorrow we will be heading to a BLM campground about 20 miles northeast of Mesquite, NV.

Sunday, October 25, 2015 (Zion River Resort, Virgin, UT)

Today we thought we'd explore a different part of Zion National Park...so about 10:30 we headed off to the northwest corner of the park. Kolob canyons is located off I-15 about 10 miles north once back to the Interstate. We started off at the Visitors Center.

After showing our 7-day park pass, we started off on the five mile scenic drive that ends at the Kolob Canyons Viewpoint. The drive climbs past the spectacular canyons and red rocks of the Kolob Canyons.

At the viewpoint, we took in the view and then decided to walk the short Timber Creek Overlook Trail...rated as moderate and described as "Follows a ridge on a small peak with views of Timber Creek, Kolob Terrace and Pine Valley Mountains." Now, it says that it is only 1 mile round trip but quite honestly, we think they got that wrong...it's more like one mile each way.

A cool path...looks like a bunch of sand boxes all lined up...

 Pretty spectacular views!

After our hike, we headed back down the scenic drive...stopping at some of the viewpoints along the way.

Then it was time for another hike...a little longer than the last one. Taylor Creek Trail...rated as moderate and follows the middle fork of Taylor Creek to Double Arch Alcove...

The trail starts with quite a decent into the valley...

 Larson Cabin Circa 1930

Some kind of mushrooms...

 Fife Cabin Circa 1930

 And finally, we made it!

Double Arch Alcove...

 After about a ten minute break...along with lots of pictures, it was time to head back...

 Look at the folds in these layers of rock...

 I slipped off the rock crossing the creek and ended up with two wet feet! Oops...

We were happy to see the stairs leading back up to the parking lot...yay, we're back! It took us about one hour, 45 minutes to make it to the Double Arch alcove...and one hour, fifteen minutes back. On the way back, we thought it would be fun to count the number of times we crossed the creek...54 times! We were tired...and I had two wet feet!

On the way back to the RV Park, we stopped in Hurricane and fueled up with diesel...$2.37/gallon. It was going on 5:00 by the time we got home....we'd had another great day! 

Well, that's it for our hiking in Zion National Park. We have gone hiking five days in a row and we figure we have hiked about 26 miles...and most of it was up and down hill! Zion National Park is absolutely beautiful! We'll have to come back again...we still have more trails to hike!