Subject: Zion National Park-Travelogue III

Date: 2003/04/14 14:48:18

We went to Las Vagas and seen Hoover Dam and stayed on Lake Mead at Las Vagas Wash CG. For $10

this is a very, very nice CG, no hook ups but great drinking water, bathrooms and of course RV

Dump. There are many CG along Lake Meade and it is a part of the NPS so we got into the park

free with our annual NPS pass! Hoover Dam is a decent tour and I would recommend it. We spent a

whole day and evening in Las Vagas. It is NOT FOR ME but I guess everybody should see it once!

To me it is the SCAM CAPITAL OF THE WORLD! I had a long chat with a fellow from Henderson, NV

and he told me it definitely is just THAT! People are trying to hustle you every place you go!

Food certainly is not as cheap as I heard it used to be but still reasonable; although most

buffets like Fur's, Golden Corral, Royal Fork are considerably cheaper by $5 to $7 each but

don't have quite the selection. Be prepared to walk a lot or spend lots of money on fares!

I will never be back. Again I am OK with going once, no regrets but I won't be back.

Next stop was Zion National park. It seems like no matter how much research you do it takes

about one day at a place to get your feet on the ground and figure things out. That was true

for Las Vagas and certainly has been true of every park we have visited in the U.S. and

Canada! Zion is no exception and after April 1st you have to use the shuttle buses to go up

Zion Canyon. You can take HWY 9 through the park but not with an RV as the tunnel (over 1 mile

long) is to low so you need to come into the park from the south and leave the way you came.

We parked at the NPS South CG and took the F-350 and went on up to Bryce and did some other

touring. Zion is a canyon experience and you look up and up and up at colorful cliffs. You

can hike to the top in numerous places. It seems most parks the major attraction anymore is

hiking and Zion is no exception. There are a number of easy hikes and of course some hard ones

and some outback ones requiring a permit. Rock climbing is big here, the second in the U.S.

next to Yosemite. BTW the shuttle system is free and works well. I had some reservations but

I will give it a big thumbs up!!! Really the best I have been on, even better than Denali

in Alaska but then that is a much, much bigger place so really not a fair comparison.

Denali is very, very good with their shuttle system.

It appears to me that in the summer time you would have trouble getting into the NPS CG so

you better get a reservation for ZION if it is into May or later. Watchman opens Friday so

South is it and we got the last spot when we came in. A few free up right away in the morning

but they are soon full. When Watchman opens it should be fine until into May.

Amateur Radio E-mail continues to work great. Cellular coverage is spotty since we left

Phoenix, even outside of Las Vagas; however we do have coverage here at Zion in the park.