beyond cinderella

Today my husband, Bill, and I continued our camp host training by visiting Zion National Park Utah. I know I said in my previous post about Snow Canyon that my words and/or pictures just don’t even begin to give the beauty of Utah justice but I will share with you what I captured today and hope that you can imagine it a hundred times more majestic than I can show you here..

First I will give you a little background about Zion in case there is anyone out there like me that has never visited Utah and experienced first hand its beauty. Here is what we learned today:

People have occupied the landscape of what is now Zion National Park for thousands of years. Zion’s first residents tracked mammoths, camels, and other mammals through open desert and sheltered canyons. With climate change, disease, and overhunting, these animals died out 8,000 years ago. Hunters adapted by hunting smaller animals and gathering food. As resources kept diminishing, people adjusted to suit their location. One desert culture, evident here still, evolved over the next 1,500 years as a community of farmers now known as Ancestral Puebloans. But drought, resource depletion, and migrations eventually decreased the Ancestral Puebloans dominance. The Southern Paiute people who followed brought traditions suited to the harsh desert climate and thrived here.

Westward expansion eventually brought new settlers to the canyon. In the 1860s, early Mormon pioneers came to the region and built small communities and farmed the river terraces.

All I can say, is I think this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It must have been kissed by the angles! We took the scenic drive that uses switchbacks to get you to the top, and this is some of what we saw. Take a look…

Halfway through the switchbacks, we drove through two long dark tunnels that take you right through part of the mountain cliffs.

And a river runs through it all…

When we completed the scenic drive, we returned to the visitors center where there were lots of picnic tables so Bill and I enjoyed a lovely picnic lunch I prepared for us before we left our camp site. Turkey sandwiches with smoked cheese, fresh sweet strawberries, bananas, chips and ice-cold water.. Life is so sweet…

We even had a visitor stop by to say hello.

But I said “No, No, No”…, you’re not getting any of my fresh, sweet, strawberries!

Because, as a now duly certified camp host, I know we should never feed the wildlife… why, you might ask? Well, cute as they may be…. if you feed them, they will become dependent upon humans… and they will eventually not learn how to find food to feed themselves and their babies… That’s why. See, I paid attention in our training class! 🙂

After lunch we made our way back to our camp site, but not before stopping at Fort Zion that is a gift shop and offers unique Indian Jewelry, as well as a small petting farm complete with a little western town to visit.

How could we resist taking a look around the Virgin Trading Post? Even though I’m not…. they let me in any way. Ha!

How adorable is this little western town complete with a jail, bank, and of course a saloon!

Why they even have their very own covered wagon. Even though I gave up my cowgirl theme décor when we sold our home and all our possessions to follow our retirement dreams… My heart will always be a cowgirl…

Upon leaving the Virgin Trading Post and surrounding western town, I noticed that the whole front of the trading post was covered with beautiful grape vines… A big detail I missed… How pretty is that?

Speaking of details… I have to share this for my Frissy.. she is all about the details with her outstanding photography. Notice I said her “photography” because there is a HUGE difference between taking pictures like I do and “real photography”, like she does… But this is the details of the cotton wood tree we had lunch under today Frissy… good as I can get just for you… 🙂

Next up I will try to answer the question we have been getting over and over again… which is “how do you just decide to sell your home, and everything in it, buy a motorhome, and start full-time RVing, without even giving it a test run first?”

Stay Tuned!