Kolob and Zion National Park

THE ROAD THROUGH ZION TO KOLOB

Yesterday was a fun day!  Well, the first half was fun, the second half was terrifying for this woman from the flatlands of Florida!  We took the drive up to Kolob Reservoir.  I took so many photos, the ride up and the scary ride down! We did the full experience!  Took the road all the way from Virgin UT to the Reservoir, all paved... and then the road from the Reservoir to I-15, all dirt!  Don't even try that back half without 4X4! I even might suggest you leave your screaming. height challenged woman at home! Jeeze Louise what a ride!

This blog is about the first half....   not even ready to edit the photos from the 2nd half yet!

As Chuck and I returned from breakfast this morning,

I couldn't help but remark about the beauty of Utah! More beauty than the eyes or the heart can hold!

There is a technical name for layered color of rocks like these, but I call them Mother Nature's petticoats!

Every corner offers beauty!

Looking down into the canyon below... the rock on the left is lava rock.

The road up to Kolob Reservoir goes in and out of Zion National Park. In my opinion, this ride shows more beauty than in the actual park!

Need I say more ???

The beauty just overwhelms me! Chuck took most of the photographs up to the reservoir because I was driving.  I am so proud of him, he really takes a great portrait of the amazing landscape in front of us!

The further up you go, the landscape changes, flatter land with the rocks thrusting up out of the earth.

 Then around the next curve, the scenery changes once again!

Textures of the Earth left open bare and beautiful!

Chuck and I spot a shady pine grove and decide to walk the hound herd. Chuck offers to walk the dogs while I go explore the path below.

The path led through the brush and opened up to this amazing view!

 This was another view at the end of the path...

And then we wandered onto a field full of black-eyed susan flowers!

The next curve broght Quaking Aspen trees, just beginning their spring bloom at about 8,000 feet!

And finally the reservoir

Finally, 24 miles later we arrive at the Kolob Reservoir!

To copy some information from a brochure, "This area is the little known jewel if Zion. Located along the western edge of Zion National Park it offers spectacular views of red rock mountains, Eagle or Condor sightings, hiking trails, pictographs in Cave Valley and fishing in the reservoir. The temperature is usually 10 - 15 degrees cooler because of the higher elevation. In it's lower regions, the Kolob is a lush world of red cliffs.... "

We hope you enjoyed this 24 mile journey with us!

Happy Trails from the Crew of the MotherShip: Geri, Chuck and our hound herd Scotty, DoogieBowser and Radar!

BOONDOCKING IN ZION

BOONDOCKING / DRY CAMPING

Our friend Sue ( http://rvsueandcrew.com/ )  is a boondocker.  That is she doesn't have to plug into power because she carries her power with her! She has a very large solar panel attached to her Cargo type van that supplies all the power she needs to run her TV, her computer, her lights and some to spare. This means Sue doesn't have a need for campgrounds. She camps on BLM land, or Forest Service land for free! She can camp on any one space for up to 14 days, then it's time to move on.

Sue is coming here to visit. Yesterday was our day off. We are trying to find suitable land for Sue to camp on here in Zion Canyon. Since this is gonna be hard work, we decided to go to our favorite town, Springdale UT (10 miles east of here) and have a late lunch!

Springdale is the home of Zion National Park! What a beautiful town! To your right is Wildcat Willie's! Our favorite place for yummy food! One of our favorites is the buffalo meatloaf! Yummy!

Everywhere you look in Springdale, you see amazing mountains!

The town is beautiful beyond words.  OK, enough scenery... on to the food!

Stuffed baked potatoes with a yummy chipotle sauce!

My new favorite, prickley pear margarita made with real cactus juice and mmm mmm good!

Lots of local beers made around here too.... this is Chuck's quest... to flavor test all the local beers to find his favorite! So far, Cutthroat Beer is his favorite!

The buffalo wings at Wildcat Willie's are to die for! We are so addicted that we ate more than 1/2 before I remembered to take a picture!

If you look closely, you can see Chuck and I reflected in the window!

FINDING SUE A PLACE TO CAMP

We had heard there was some good camping areas on the road to Grafton! We turned at Rockville and headed towards Grafton. (Grafton area is where much of the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" was shot! Remember the bicycle riding scene??? Shot in front of the old school house/ church in Grafton! The road to Grafton is beautiful!

 Scenery peeking through the bluffs and buttes....

Here, we took a left turn off the Grafton road as we saw some possible off road camping sites!

Then we see this sign! 1/2 mile on either side of the road usually means a steep drop off! In AZ they want you close to the road, right?  We found several campsites that folks had used just off the road that would be perfect!

 Good roads and beautiful scenery so far. so we kept going hunting for that perfect spot for Sue! But the paved road left and the rough dirt roads began....

But the scenery continued as awesome!

We found several campsites up ahead, and after using 4WD and one steep climb up a sorta rocky road, and seeing another steep road ahead, I decided we were gonna turn around! The road wasn't real bad, just more than I was in the mood for!

So we decided to head on to Grafton.  There was a sign almost immediately that said no camping beyond here....  Sorry Sue, but the road is beautiful and worth the drive!

We had to laugh at this sign. There was a small community down the hill, so I am sure they had their share of dust from folks heading to Grafton!

The road dead ends at Grafton... it is such a visual journey that we highly recommend you take it.  I will show more about Grafton in my next post, but this post is to show off the scenery in the area and find RVSue a campground!
We got back up to the highway (Highway 9) in Rockville and turned left.

THE ALMOST PERFECT SPOT!

 The reason I say "almost perfect", if you see behind the tent you will see a tour bus and behind the tour bus, another car. That is highway 9! But BUT BUT BUT SUE!!!! THIS IS THE BEST WE COULD FIND!

Nice dirt roads with several good camp sites. There were 3 occupied tent sites when we were here.

 The best campsite was up under that tree, but a tenter already claimed it!

There was even a hiking trail out of this camp area..
this area is known as Coalpits Wash!

 Another good campsite!

And another possibility....

AND NO RUTTED ROADS THERE! Several of the roads where we went looking for campsites were almost impassible without a high clearance 4WD vehicle! Coalpits road might have been near the highway, but most of the camp areas were a bit away from it and the road in and out was easy access.

Ok Sue, and everybody else interested.... here you see some choice as to where you can camp for free near Zion! Most are not easy to get to but the rides to find them are amazing journeys into beautiful wild country! And there is always Wildcat Willies at the end of the day! :-)

Hope you enjoyed the roadtrip with us! Happy Trails from the MotherShip and her crew... Chuck, Geri and the hound herd Scotty, DoogieBowser and Radar!