Park Hoppers

I haven't had the chance to post yesterday's entry, but I'm hoping to double up tomorrow.

Currently we are in Nowheresville, population two. But before I get to that, let me update you (or probably just make personal record of since my readership here is pretty low) on our arrival at said location.

Yesterday, we hit traffic just as we got to Vegas, which made it easy to decide not to deal with parking and giving away my money to a casino. We headed onward to St. George, but missed the chance to hit up the visitor center to inquire about Zion (we crossed a time zone, so it was closed). Instead, we ate our second meal in a row outside of a grocery store and then continued on our trek to Zion. We had little hope that a campsite would be available in the park, but we were unpleasantly surprised that we couldn't even enter the park due to road construction. We turned towards a reservoir nearby, anticipating a turnoff that we could sneak away on and setup camp. Too residential. Which meant that there was a great little neighborhood park. We spent six hours here, restlessly dozing as we both had nightmares of dog attacks and confrontations with the authorities. No tent. We did our best to be invisible.

On the road again at 6:00 AM, we got to Zion before 8 AM and tooled around the visitor center for a while. Ultimately, we ended up choosing a little hike that left from there and went up to a nice outlook of the valley. After that we hit the scenic highway (sweet tunnels) and arrived at the Grand Canyon North Rim Lodge at about 11:30 AM. Impressive, eh? We did a bunch of short strolls from the main drag to see amazing vistas of this natural wonder. On the road again before sunset. We hit the interchange towards Albuquerque, which is conveniently a national forest, so we are free to camp wherever. Current location, Nowheresville, off the drag. Snack, beer, and to bed we go. Glad to have a tent over our heads and a roof in our future as we plan to stay with Mat's relatives tomorrow night.

Not a huge mileage day in regards to driving, but we saw so much in just a short amount of time. i think amongst all the strolls and hikes, we must have gotten in about six miles on foot today. I wish that we could have spent more time in both Zion and the North Rim, but I'm so glad to at least have an idea of their awe-inspiring presence.

Mileage today: 175
Total mileage count: 2675 (I think... calculator check anyone?)