Zion National Park (Utah)




Entering Zion National Park from the east, we drove past this remarkable grid-patterned mountain.




We spent one night in a campground, where this Western Tanager made a conspicuous cameo.




Looking down Zion Canyon.




We had the excellent luck to stay with Greg (who does controlled burns in the area) and Annette (backcountry ranger and childhood friend of Amanda).




The Bush admin. *paid* a logger to cut these trees near a hilltop campground ("forest thinning").  The logger declared bankruptcy and left the fallen trees to rot.




A nice healthy diamondback rattler.




Annette and Amanda at the scenic stopping point of a nice day hike.




Back in the canyon - you can see about how shy this deer was - hikers were free to walk right past it along the trail.




Waves of rock made for interesting footing on the trail to Hidden Canyon.




Hidden Canyon itself - a neat boxy affair with fern-lined walls.




The only way to walk to "The Narrows" at the head of Zion Canyon is to plunge right into the river.





About as far into The Narrows as we got.




A brief detour from a Nevada highway took us past this historic-looking structure.




Otherwordly terrain (with tumbleweeds) at Cathedral Gorge State Park in Nevada.




Purple mountains and gray-green sagebrush in Nevada, where we cruised the Extraterrestrial Highway.