Exploring the beautiful southwest!
 | It has been a while since we last visited the southwest. So we decided that the month of May would be a perfect time for a road trip to visit this area. The weather is not quite hot and the tourist season has not yet begun. We drove from LA area to Zion National park then Bryce Canyon, Monument Valley and Glen Canyon with its Lake Powell. We stopped along the way whenever we felt like to. It was a wonderful trip that covered 1800 miles in 6 days. America is beautiful! and we want to share with you our experience through a few pictures of our own. The sky is brilliantly blue, The air is amazingly fresh, The wind gently caress my sole, I, Aimlessly wander the desert J. |
Zion National Park was our first stop. It was a Memorial Day weekend, so the park was quite full with campers. We stayed at Springdale, a small western town just on the outskirt of Zion. We took the free city shuttle service to the park’s entrance. At the park’s entrance, you can get on the park shuttle where it takes you around the park and stop along the major point of interests where you can get off and on. It was a convenience way to see the park without having to find a parking space.
Next day, after visiting the Zion NP, we drove thru a
section of Highway 9 where a mile long tunnel was built back in the 1930 to Bryce Canyon National
Park. It was my first time at these
places and I was surprised as how colorful and peculiar rock formation they have.
Along highway 9, there were quite a few spectacular views of the area that we
could not help but stopped multiple times to take pictures.
In the afternoon, we drove to Kanab, a little town on
highway 89, just south of highway 9.
This area was known as Little Hollywood.
Since many western movies and TV shows were filmed here. Films such as McKenna’s Gold, One Little
Indian etc. were filmed at the near-by Coral
Pink Sand Dunes State Park. It was quite
a contrast to what we saw at Zion
and Bryce. Here, beautiful sand dunes in
red color rose up in the middle of a dessert.
On the fourth day of our trip, we had quite a long drive to Monument Valley. The clerk at the hotel was not even up when we attempted to check out. So we just dropped the key in the drop-box and left the hotel before sunrise. Here at the Monument Valley, it’s a vast plateau with cluster of huge sandstone buttes. While we were there, we saw film crews getting things ready to film the sequel of The Transformer. Secret muscle cars all covered from public eyes on a flat bed trucks…We booked a Jeep excursion, where the local Indian native, drove us around in a suburban and pointed out various rock formation with a unique names like Elephant buttes, Three sisters, Mitten, The Cube etc in the area. We drove back to Page to stay at the Lake Powell Resorts today before checking out this lake resort area tomorrow.
Today after a sumptuous breakfast at the resort, we checked out the hotel, and then joined the Antelope Canyon boat tour on Lake Powell. There were quite a few French tourists on the boat. I guess we are fascinating with the old architectures in Europe and they’re instead fascinating with our vast natural beauty. You just never know what you would encounter. Our friend had a great time chit chatting with the French, honing his language skill. Sometimes, you just don’t know what to be considered fun. He seemed to have fun by simply conversed with de nouveaux amis. I guess that was the bonus of this trip.
After the boat tour we made our way back to St. George,
The trip was quite relaxing and interesting. All parks that we visited each had its own
uniqueness. No two are alike and we enjoyed them all.
Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we did!
