Leaving Bryce, Visiting Zion and Traveling to Salt Lake

Today I awoke around 4 am with rain hitting the roof of my cabin and dozed for the next two hours. I got up around 6 am, dressed and got packed ready to leave. There was intermittent rain and the temp was around 42F. I drove into Tropic on my way out and had breakfast at Clarke’s Restaurant and was on the road a little after 7:30am. When I got up the road another 12 miles to the cut-off to Bryce National Park the temp was 34F and there was snow on the ground!

Snow around Bryce Canyon Area

 I made my way the other 20 miles to pick up US 89 to got to Zion National Park about a 90 minute drive. I drove through some intermittent rain with occasional snow flurries and the tem stayed around 34-38F. I arrived at Zion around 9 am and it took another 30-40 minutes to drive into the park from the east entrance. That drive was worth the trip by itself. The rain stopped and the sun was peaking out every now and then. I arrived at the Visitor’s Center and checked on what I might see in a couple of hours. The temp was around 45-48 at the bottom of the canyon.

Part of the Road into Zion

I hopped on the shuttle, which is the only traffic allowed into the canyon, for a round trip ride to the different spots around 10 am. As soon as I got on the shuttle the rain began to fall. I got off at the last stop, the Temple of Sinawava, and walked along the riverside walk for a ways. I had taken my little poncho and was keeping pretty dry, but it only came to my knees. As I walked along the riverside path a ways the rain started falling harder, so I trekked back to the shuttle stop.

View from the Visitor Center Looking East, I think

Waterfall at the Temple of Sinwava

One View at Big Bend

The Court of the Patriarchs, which seem to have their heads in the clouds

I rode the shuttle back and got off at Big Bend and then again at the Court of the Patriarchs and then returned to the Visitor Center and headed for the car and left around 12:30 pm. If it hadn’t been raining I might have tried a couple of the other stops, but I still had 4-5 hours of travel to get to Salt Lake. Zion was such a different canyon that The Grand Canyon, Yosemite Valley or Bryce. Whereas Yosemite Valley has massive gray granite mountains rising several thousand feet above the valley floor, Zion has red sandstone mountains rising above the valley floor. I was glad I made the effort to go, even with the rain.

I headed on toward Salt Lake and picked up I-15 about 20 miles from Zion. The temperature on that section rose to the high 40s. As I traveled toward Cedar City where I was going to get gas and bite of lunch, the temps began to drop into the low-mid 30s and snow began to be visible along the road and in the mountains. When I stopped in Cedar City it was snowing!!

On the road to Cedar City

Can you say SNOW in mid-May!

After lunch I head on toward Salt Lake which was going to be another 3-4 hours. About half way there the temps stayed in the 30s and with intermittent rain and snow on the ground along the way. Along the road I came upon a Corvette pulling what looked to be a custom made, low profile trailer. As I got closer I could see the licensed plate on the ‘Vette which said “ROWDTRIP”. Love it! When I got to Provo the temps began to rise into the high 40s, but by the time I got to Salt Lake the rain returned and temps dropped into the low-mid 40s. Looks like my decision to abandon the camp site in Salt Lake was right on target.

Except for the rain, the drive up to Salt Lake was very pleasing with the wide open expanses, the mountains and valleys, and even the snow!

On the Road to Salt Lake

I checked in to the Super 8 in Midvale on the southeast side of Salt Lake and looked for someplace to eat close by. Lo and Behold there was a Lone Star Steakhouse just down the street. I went there for supper and asked if my Texas driver’s license would get me any special treatment, but they said not to count on it. The host was a young man who used to live in Kingwood near Houston and my waiter was named Austin. I had a nice little top sirloin, wedge salad, baked sweet potato, bread and iced tea. As I was leaving I mentioned to the waiter I was headed to Jackson, WY tomorrow. A man in the booth next to me who was also leaving heard me tell the waiter and he said to me he was originally from Jackson and his Dad had called him today and said part of the road, which was on my route, is impassible. He suggested an alternate route to get to Jackson. I thanked him and headed back to the hotel. I checked on the route he suggested and plotted it out so that Samantha and I know where we are going tomorrow.

A Texas Oasis in Utah

By the way, Samantha had done great the past several days in Bryce Canyon, Zion and getting me to Salt Lake. I hope she is up for tomorrow’s adventure.

The look ahead for the next 10 days for Jackson, Grand Teton and Yellowstone is not looking good. Grand Teton is expecting rain and snow the next 3-4 days with highs in the 30-40s. Yellowstone isn’t much better next week when I am there with rain and temps in the mid 40s and lows in the high 20s. Looks like I will be cancelling that KOA campsite for Yellowstone. Maybe Mount Rushmore will have better weather. On a positive note, there may not be as many tourists!

On another note, the change out of the battery on the car yesterday erased all my trip data to date. I still have the Odometer reading from when I started in Dallas and I remember turning 62,000 miles on my way into Bryce Canyon on Monday, so all is not lost. I will just have data for the last part of the trip and will try to correlate it with what I can piece together from my notes, etc. That is for all the rest of you anal-retentives that are following my adventure.

See you down the road!