Saturday, October 5th - We arrived at Leeds RV Park and had very little trouble getting into a slot. No satellite capability, but we can stream TV and get local stations. We are located about 15 miles north of St. George, Utah.

Sunday, October 6th - Today, we are on our way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Lisa visited the Grand Canyon about 30 years ago (when she was 10 years old) and I have never been there. We flew over the canyon in a B-52, but I did not have a window; bummer. From Leeds, it takes about three hours to drive to the north rim, so we started early. The drive is pretty with flat lands and massive buttes off in the distance. We stopped in a small town called "Jacob Lake" to have breakfast. It was a very nice place to eat. There are very few places to get service or food when you travel to the north rim. For this reason, only about 10% of the visitors to the Grand Canyon go to the north rim. As we approached the park, we climbed to about 8500 feet of elevation and began to see yellow and red Aspens mixed in with the pines; it was beautiful and made the drive to the park super-scenic too. We had not anticipated the color show, but it sure made the drive fun. Services at the rim will close on the October 16th and the campgrounds will close at the end of the month. It is getting pretty cold at nights and the north rim gets a lot of snow over the winter; twelve feet on the north rim compared to five feet on the south rim.

There is only one way into the north rim. Once you arrive at the Visitor Center, you are right at the viewpoint for the canyon. The viewpoint is called Bright Angel Point. The views from this area are awesome; literally. If you drive back towards the park entrance for about five miles, you are able to turn right on Cape Royal Road which takes you to Point Imperial, Walhalla Overlook, and then Cape Royal. This drive is about 20 miles long to Point Royal. Most of the viewpoints require very short hikes of a half mile or less and the trails are, in most cases, paved. For this reason, you can literally drive right up to the view points. So, even though it is a long drive, you can see the bulk of the view points in one day.

There is a reason that the Grand Canyon is one of the Wonders of the World. The views are breath-taking and you cannot stop taking pictures. Different colors of soils from white to the bright reds that contain more iron. You should make a point of visiting the Grand Canyon as even the photos do not do it justice. I have made a concerted effort to be sure to see both the north and south rims. I cannot say much more than the Grand Canyon made the long drive well worth it. With the Sun low in the sky, the drive out of the park was super-spectacular due to the red and yellow aspens. Videos taken through the windshield as we drove along came out great. All in all, we had a great day at the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

On Monday, October 7th, we visited Zion National Park. This would be our second trip to Zion since we visited this park with the Capps last year. Zion National Park is unique in that you are continuously looking up as you are at the bottom of the canyon. Massive cliffs rise on both sides for over a thousand feet; an amazing view. Zion is really a very small park. It is a canyon with one way in and one way out. For this reason and the large number of visitors, most people have to park outside the park and take the shuttles that move through the park all day. The City of Canyonville have installed parking meters all along the road going to the park and it cost of $20 to park for the day; yuk! Once you walk to the shuttle departure point, you will join a host of people waiting for shuttles; the waits are usually no more than 15 minutes. There are nine stops on the shuttle route from the start to the end of the route near the Narrows. Two stops were closed; one for a massive landslide and the other because they were working on the parking lot at the museum. Since we had to be back at the RV by 3:00 pm for Lisa to work, we decided to travel to the end of the line and go hike in the river at what is called "The Narrows."' There is a half-mile hike to the Narrows. We changed to our water shoes and hit the water; boy, the water was cold. About a half mile up the canyon, the water got a little deeper in one spot; the depth was to the high-thigh area. Lisa immediately aborted the mission! Too high and too cold. Lisa turned back and I continued forward. Really pretty with high canyon walls and people walking in the water. I went about another half mile to a turn in the water. We asked a couple if there was more to see around the next bend; then said, "More of the same." I turned around and head back. Lisa and I then went to the Lodge area at stop 5 where we had lunch. After lunch, we headed back to the RV. It was a nice stay at Zion. We both really enjoyed the visit and hiking. Zion is a must-see national park for all. See the photos.

Today is Tuesday, October 8th - We are working at the RV to get caught up on chores that we had put on hold while visiting Zion and the Grand Canyon. I'm loading photos and writing this blog post. Lisa is working and trying to get in some extra hours for today. We plan to hike at Red Canyon to day and then travel to St. George to better see the city.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 9th - We head for Las Vegas, Nevada for two weeks.