Quicky to Zion & Valley of Fire

[samthg]

Head out of So. Cal to points north, about 450 miles to Zion NP. Eazy Peazy! I've been trying to squeeze this in for a few weeks now, you know how this goes. Self employment allows me freedom and chains at the same time. Cut to the chase, here are the pics....


Heading east on hwy 9 you come across the 'shoe tree'. Legend says that after you climb Angels Landing in Zion this is where you donate...



I arrived at the entrance by 8am, wait a second, there is some traffic...



Holy crap there is tons of traffic, it's Tues! Well since i'm in Zion 3 or 4 times a year, I'll take a 'bye' this time...



Looking toward the park...



Nice spot right outside the park in Springdale. With a few pics shot from the parking lot...











Switch to Plan B
So I took off out of Zion and headed back to St. George, did a little lookin' around, got a burger at In-n-Out and started south on I15. South of SG takes you through Virgin Gorge(RedRockRider has done some wonderful stuff from 'on top' of the gorge, this is from the hwy...



South of Mesquite and north of Vegas is Valley of Fire. Fantastic state park with low visitor count. Kinda of a sleeper park. The geology and colors are wonderful...


The cabins were built by the Civilian Conservation Corp. back in the 1930's when the park first became a state park...



Zoomin' through the park...





E.T. got chewed out when he got 'home'.



A small sample of the remnants of rain. This was all over the park...



Old art...





On my way out of the park, with a quick ride back to Vegas for the night...



...and heading back to Kalifornia. This is new construction that is going on with three of these towers being built and a whole lotta' mirrors.



All in all a nice little 1000 mi. ride with some great southwest views.

Thanks for viewing...

Sam.

[RedRockRider]

Awesome, Sam.

The shoe tree . . . nice. And traffic at the entrance of Zion. Still a very nice time of year for Zion.

Hey, I think I still owe you a lunch. Next time you are ripping through St. G . . . send me a pm.

Perhaps I can try and keep up with you on my little o' Versys.

Excellent pics!

[dirt4me]

...can't blame you for the U turn at Zion’s. It's usually the journey not the destination anyway. Nice trip.

[irvfr]

Nice RR. I visited the Zion NP few months ago (late July). An awesome place. Your pics reminded me of warm memories there. It seems they now allow the private vehecles in the park. When I was there last July, everyone must take shuttles to visit the park.

[motowest]

yep, lots of european tourists visiting the parks!

[samthg]

Originally Posted by irvfr

Nice RR. I visited the Zion NP few months ago (late July). An awesome place. Your pics reminded me of warm memories there. It seems they now allow the private vehecles in the park. When I was there last July, everyone must take shuttles to visit the park.

Zion is a fantastic place! They usually only run the shuttle system during the busy summer months. You can drive in during the 'off' months.

Originally Posted by dirt4me

...can't blame you for the U turn at Zion’s. It's usually the journey not the destination anyway. Nice trip.

You are correct with that...it is the journey.

Originally Posted by RedRockRider

Awesome, Sam.

Perhaps I can try and keep up with you on my little o' Versys.

Excellent pics!

Thanks RRR, how about we reverse that, and me and the KLX will try to hang with that WRR...

[samthg]

Originally Posted by motowest

yep, lots of european tourists visiting the parks!

Funny thing about that. When I pulled into the Majestic View Lodge just outside the park there was a group of folks out front, when I pulled off my helmet I could here some heavy German being spoken when one of the fellow looked at me similing and said "BMW, yea, yea".

[Signal]

Originally Posted by samthg

Funny thing about that. When I pulled into the Majestic View Lodge just outside the park there was a group of folks out front, when I pulled off my helmet I could here some heavy German being spoken when one of the fellow looked at me similing and said "BMW, yea, yea".

Thanks for posting the pics
Lots of german and frenchies in the southern Utardia-

They really like to flock to the red rock sites in busloads

[RedRockRider]

Quite an ugly, little, old tree under there . . .




Some shoes.