Pressing Onward to Zion and Great Basin National Parks

Tuesday June 26
Day 7

After we got all packed up, we headed back into the Grand Canyon National Park to one of the main campgrounds that had shower facilities. After the much needed shower that felt sooo goood, we headed out of the Kaibab National Forest toward Zion National Park. 

Zion did not fail to disappoint. The grandeur was overwhelming on a different level than the Grand Canyon. Where the Grand Canyon was so vast and spread out, Zion's beauty is up close and personal and smacks you in the face!

The landscape is unlike anything we had ever seen before. A lot of Zion is not open to the public, you have to pay to have someone guide you in, it is so wild. We arrived too late to get our passport stamped, Darn!

We did get to see Bighorn Sheep and went through the longest coolest tunnel ever, through the side of a mountain. 

It was starting to get to that magic hour where we needed to find a campsite. We headed out to the main highway US 15 which to our surprise had an 80mph speed limit. We zipped up to Beaver got gas and headed over to the Minersville State park to grab a campsite. Cost, $20.00. It was about 10 pm when we got there and started setting up camp.  There were fishermen out on the lake in their tiny wakeless boats being as silent as could be. The only sound was when they dragged their boats out of the water. 

Again Christie went out late and captured the night sky. Even though it was late, we were far enough north for the ambient light to have an effect on her shots. Once again someone hit their lights as she was taking her shot. 

Night sky at Minersville reservoir

Finally a good shot!

The sleeping weather was good and cool but not cold(29°)like at the Grand Canyon.  We had a great sleep and got up early when we heard the guys next door putting their boats in the water, also heard water hitting our tent. We didn't realize we had set up next to a sprinkler system.  Christie had to take Lizzy up to the shower to clean her off as she had gotten sick and got her coat messy. 

Once we got the dogs fed, walked, tent packed away and car loaded we struck out in search of a place to eat. We hit the first little town of Minersville. They had a gas station, grocery store and a hardware store and that was pretty much it. No coffee shop at all. We moved on to Milford a good sized town that had a rail yard. There we got ice for the ice chest and stopped at the Dollar store for some supplies and headed out of town. I began to wonder if it was going to be a dry hole as well. The very last business out of town was a place called Penny's Diner. A haven in an empty oasis! We went in and had the best breakfast. The coffee was great, service was great, everything was great. The price was reasonable as well. Found out that Penney's was built with a 50's theme for the railroad boys and they decided to open several years ago to travelers. Good thing they did. It looked brand new but in fact had been there for 15 years. 

After breakfast we pressed on to Great Basin National Park in Nevada. Again we faced wide open spaces and great expanses. We hit the little town of Frisco a blip in the road and just about didn't see another soul until we hit Garrison just before the Utah/Nevada border. We saw some of what we think were the first telephone poles which were tree trunks. There were miles of them. You could tell they were ancient.

We arrived at Baker, Nevada which is a kick off spot for the loneliest road in America. Baker is a little wide spot in the road but it has a certain charm, a grocery store, ice cream shop, a little motel and bar. And that just about covers Baker. You turn at Baker and head towards Great Basin National Park. There is no admission charge so that is a plus. We were ready to see what Great Basin had in store for us. 

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