Zion!

So today was Lake Mead to Bryce canyon, with a stop at Zion NP. 

We were blown away by Zion. We will be back there.

First...thanks lake Mead, it was fun. Hot as hell. And windy. But...where was I going with this? Paris was nice.

Anyway...onwards.

Heading east for hours and hours...we unexpectedly crossed into Arizona (another state!) And drove by some amazing stuff in southern Utah.

Solar farms that stretch as far as you can see....

Some expanses of...nothing...

And some rocking out to "Holiday Road" on XM road trip radio. (Didn't see Christie Brinkley though...oh well)

Finally arrived at Zion NP.

The only thing to say about this place is that it is appropriately named. It's utterly stunning.

We stopped at the visitor center (more stamps! In yellow now!)

And proceeded to drive through the park, which includes a mile long tunnel built in the 30s. (With size restrictions for vehicles that we luckily met)

Lisa lived the geology here...some utterly fascinating rock formations out in plain sight

And then parked at a turn out and climbed around on some rocks, which the girls loved.

Catie found a fossil, too!

Pretty sure it's a tree ring:

While climbing around near the random turn out, we realized that down the slope there was a slot canyon!

Knew these were here, but with our limited time, didnt think we'd get to see one. 

In short, we'll be back here someday. It deserves a couple of days on its own for sure. We didn't even scratch the surface.

Continuing on, as soon as you leave Zion NP to the east, the scenery changes like a light switch.

Green grass, red mountains.

About 2 hours more (about 7 total in the car today) and we arrived at our accommodations for the night, just outside the Bryce Canyon gates. Which is amazingly at 7700 feet...and thus refreshingly cool.

Tomorrow it's Bryce Canyon NP in the morning, and some well deserved down time in the afternoon.