Wheeling and Zion National Park

We spent the day out driving around in our off road truck.  We went into Zion National Park the back way on dirt roads and really enjoyed the Fall colors.  When we left colorado I was afraid we would miss the Rocky Mountain Fall colors but I think the mountains and the trees made up for it today.

There was lots of volcanic rock spread out in the area and a huge old crater (now a lake).  The volcano is called the Markangunt Plateau Volcano.  It is with a group of cinder cones and lava vents.  I love rocks....  The mountains we went over summited at 9356 feet.  It was so pretty out there.









From the top you can see forever!

While we were looking at the scenery, the deer were looking at us...












We then headed over to Hurricane, UT, a small town near St. George, UT.  We went there to get supplies at the local Walmart.  Everything is so expensive in Kanab, UT that we thought we could stock up on dry goods for the remainder of our stay (end of October) when we will be in the Glendale, AZ area.

After stocking up, we re-fueled and headed to the official entry to Zion National Park.  I stopped at the visitor's center and picked up post cards.

Toward the end of this long gorgeous winding road, we came upon a mile-long tunnel.  It is bore right through the mountain and was completed in 1932!  I can't even imagine how hard that must been back then.  Every once in a while along the tunnel there were "view ports" or what we called toxic fume vents.  The next picture is one of them as we passed by.

It was definitely worth the long day in the heat.  It was about 90 today so a nice cold shower felt great.  In a few weeks, we are going to try to go back and take the shuttles to the hiking trails.  We are not big hikers but would love to see some of the canyons that are only accessible on foot.  We need to wait until it gets cooler!

By the way...Gordo was unimpressed!