We had an easier day planned for today…after breakfast we headed off for a driving trip up to the Kolob Reservoir which takes you through the southern portion of the Kolob Canyon area of Zion National Park…Kolob is up in the northwest corner of the overall park. We knew we would not actually see Kolob Canyon today…that’s scheduled for Wednesday and requires a drive back up I-15 20 miles or so before entering the far northwest corner of Zion
Connie declared today to be the adventure portion of the tour…we define the adventure portion as either you don’t have complete and precise directions of where you’re going or you don’t know what you will see when you get there. Today’s trip fit both of those requirements.
According to Google maps and Apple maps…there was a road all the way up to UT-14 that we were on last week on our trip out to Cedar Breaks National Monument…but it (a) turned out to be a dirt road for an unknown number of miles and (b) we weren’t real sure that the road we thought we should turn on was actually what we thought it was and not a road into private property…there were some No Trespassing signs nearby where we almost turned off of the road around Kolob Reservoir and it wasn’t really clear what was marked. So we passed on it and turned around to head home rather than take the uncertain route out to the freeway and thence back through Cedar City to Virgin.
It turned out to be a really good trip…lots more wonderful scenery albeit a little different than the main Zion Canyon part of the park…more wooded for one and we actually saw some wildlife.
On our arrival at Kolob Reservoir we parked for awhile and had a banana for lunch before heading home.
Nice house we saw along the way…probably $500K out here or would be $4M back in VA where we used to live.
Turned around after taking the house photo and this is their view.
Doe mule deer.
Swanson’s Hawk we’re pretty sure.
Mr. Ed…he was just standing there looking over the fence.
Kolob Reservoir.
Canada geese.
They’re serious about their sharp curve speed recommendations here…this was going into a 180 switchback…if you were on a bike riding up the hill and took the inside apex of the corner it was probably 22-23% grade.
Immature California Condor…very much like a Turkey Vulture except almost twice the size. The captive breeding program that brought this bird back from the verge of extinction released some in AZ and they migrated up here to the Zion area.
Virgin River looking up and then downstream behind Zion River Resort where we’re parked just out of the frame and over the berm to the left. It’s really not a very big river to have carved the Zion Canyon you saw in yesterday’s post…maybe 25 yards wide and at most 18 inches deep.
A really strange tow vehicle 2 sites down from us…Ford F650…but it appears that it was modified by adding a new frame underneath the original one or maybe they just put an F650 body on top of a custom frame.
Interesting Stuff found on the net.
Meanwhile…only in Florida.
Breaking News.
Google Survey.
Cyas.
Travels with Gunther and Kara 
Man, there surely is a lot of space out there. Thanks once again for the great photos.
Yeah…everything is pretty huge and you can see much farther on average than back east because of the altitude. Got some more great shots of The Narrows today after hiking in the river.
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hey yall, been follerin’, lotsa really gorjus fotos of hoodoos and such – really big vistas out there. super-impressed with this one tho – didn’t know popcorn grew wild out there… hope G is better from dat air-deprivation thing… willie’s wiggles was far out (any idea ’bout the grade?)… that truck was cool too, but i’d hate ta havta buy those tires… can only guess on the a/c bill fer dat one house (mus’ be bruce willis or sumbody famous… know yall’r havin’ a blast, jus’ be mindful ’bout dat no air thing… i be watchin’…YBG
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ps – where are the indians ? me want see Tonto ! (Alex wants a tomahawk fer Christmas…)
Gunther’s still on low oxygen…hopefully only another couple of weeks and we’ll be lower. I don’t think the house was anybody famous…just a home on the side of the road up there…we saw a bunch of them but that one had the best view.
Looking at the trail map…it’s a rise of about 500-600 feet over about 400 feet or so horizontally so if it was straight up the side of the canyon (which is pretty much vertical at that point) it would be something over 45 degrees…but with the 21 switchbacks on the way up it’s probably not more than 20 or 25 percent. It’s about 200 feet rise over the first mile and a half, then 500 over the next less than a quarter mile then it’s pretty flat across the rim until you head out on the fin…then another 300 feet over the last 1/3 of a mile. I found a couple more pictures that show the Wiggles a little better…will put those up in the next post.
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Gunther and Kara you stay hidden from the Hawks. and the Vultures. They will pick you up and take you from your Employees. “BOY” they would say “who are we gonna work for now.?” Some of those flowers look like my Angels Trumpets and mine are a gorgeous Salmon Color. As to the houses out in the boonies. Who in their right mind would live out there. They must be in their left mind. Or left their mind somewhere else. I have been behind in reading your posts. I am sorry. Been very busy with DR. Appointments. God Damn (sorry Gunther and Kara) didn’t mean to curse. But getting old is a b—h. and it is not for sissies. Are Connie and Neil going to travel some more during August? Some of the Elks and Loe went on the JP Cruise for the 4th of July. We went for a short cruise, ate some buffet, and then turned around to see the Downtown Fort Myers Fireworks. You would have been clapping your hands and dancing with the music. It was so much fun. Wesley took some beautiful pictures. I think he can compete with Neil (Picture taking) not hiking and trying to breathe. You hurry and get better Gunther so we can have a party when you get back. Love, Adrienne, Joe, Gucci and Shiloh. Wait until you meet my little critters. Shiloh especially likes Bears. Because he is always humping his. Gucci is not too happy when he tries to hump her though.
Well…vultures only eat dead things so they’re safe there unless the lack of oxygen kills Gunther off but I think he’s gonna survive. Hawks are another matter potentially for Kara as she isn’t full grown yet but bears don’t worry about hawks either.
Gotta get those medical stuff things done though. Glad ya’ll had a good time on the JP Cruise.
We’re traveling to Salt Lake City tomorrow then next week over to Reno and we’ll meet up with Frank and Gail at the end of the Elks national meeting for dinner…then heading west into CA at Redding before continuing up through Oregon and WA then heading east. We’ll be in Coeur d’Alene ID for Labor Day then over to Yellowstone before heading to Spearfish SD for the New Horizons rally…then south via Denver with our friends Bill and Linda to Albuquerque for the Balloon Festival there. After that we’re headed east to arrive back in Fort Myers Nov 1.
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