Sept 20 th We loaded up the car and took off for the North part of Zion, The Kolob Canyons. This is a short 5 mile drive through a beautiful canyon to an amazing one mile hike to the lookout. After this hike we headed back to the entrance to hike the middle fork of the Taylor River to the Double Arch. It was at the base of the canyon we had just driven. It was cool, we crossed the river over 10 times. I saw a few deer prints and two lizards. (Oh, I had seen a black tailed rabbit on the drive). The hike was estimated to take 4 hours. We did not really want to commit that much time so decided one hour in was our goal. Unfortunately, for Wayne, when we got to the one hour point some people were returning and said it wasn’t that much further…30 minutes later we got to the arches. The area was very spiritual. I am glad we had decided to complete the walk. We completed it in 3 hours.

We had to drive around the park to continue our route on Hwy 12 out of the south gate of Zion. We reentered the West gate and drove through the tunnels. This is a must drive for anyone there! We drove up the beautiful walls of the canyon before entering the tunnels. On the other side, the colors and shapes had totally changed. The colors were lighter and the canyons less steep. We saw two herds of long horned sheep, which had been close to extinction. One of the herds of sheep was just lying on a bluff overlooking the highway. The Other herd was just frolicking next to the highway a little further on. What a joy! We continued on to Deer Creek for our evening stay. Now this was not our style. I think it was for hunters, fisherman, ATV riders and snow mobiles…not us. The drive was nice, the area rustic and macho.

Sept 21 We left Deer Creek later, there were a lot of dead deer along the road as we entered, we did not want to add to the count. We did see a deer on our way out but left him standing. We arrived at Bryce…or so they say. It is totally fogged in with a visibility of less than one hundred feet. There is absolutely no view of anything anywhere. We are in the lodge, a very beautiful place. We found a little alcove by the fireplace and we are awaiting the clouds to lift.

We had lunch at the lodge, hoping the cloud would lift. There were rumors it would lift around 2 and clear up. I checked out the gift shop, we were done with the lodge. We thought we would check out the road. If we dropped down in elevation, maybe we could get below the cloud. Nope, zero visibility. We could not even follow the lines on the road!

Our next choice, find the liquor store in Pungitch (now how is that for the name of a town. Sounds like something out of Harry Potter.) On our way back we stopped at the Red Canyon visitor center. We were able to see some Hoodoos there. The Ranger said even if the weather did lift, the trails would be like quick sand. Not too encouraging. On to the liquor store quest… We had the address, it was on main St. Turned out not to be too hard. There are only two streets in town! The wine selection was great. If making the selection easy is great. There were at the most 15 types of wine, most all cheap. It is amazing, only liquor stores sell wine this is the only one in probably 40 miles and that is the wine selection. I guess that is why online wine sales is doing so well. We made our purchase, found our motel and enjoyed the wine and an early night.