Northern Arizona and Zion National Park

The morning of Wednesday, July 13^th, I got up and was on my way headed to Utah.  I took interstate 17 all the way up to Flagstaff and then got onto highway 89 and then 89A all the way up to Utah.  I know when most people think of Arizona all they can picture is ugly deserts, but the further north you go the more beautiful things get.  It is a completely different landscape up north and just when you think you’ve seen the most amazing sight, another one comes along and proves you wrong.  The browns, reds, purples, and oranges all blend together to make an amazing tapestry of color that is the landscape all around you.  Mix that in with the blue sky above and it is definitely a sight to be seen in person.  Along my trek on 89A I came across many roadside stands selling all sorts of things.  I had been wanting a handmade vase ever since I saw the ones my aunt had at her house but had yet to find one I really liked.  I ended up stopping at a random place where some women were selling vases and jewelry and found the vase for me.  It wasn’t very big, but had bold colors of red,yellow, blue and orange on it and I knew instantly that I was going to buy it.  It also happened that the place I stopped had a bunch of old rock houses as far as the eye could see.  They were pretty cool to look at, but at the same time kinda creepy.  I was just waiting for some prehistoric caveman to jump out……or maybe just the Flinstones =)  Nonetheless it was interesting to see these houses that were carefully made out of rock that people used to live in.  I can’t imagine the amount of time it took just to make a small one.  From there I went the rest of the way up to Zion National Park.  I got there late afternoon/early evening so I didn’t get to actually go into the park.  I thought about camping and going the next day, but I wanted to get on my way so I just settled for driving around it and getting as many pictures as I could.  The rocks here were a lot different than anything else I saw on my trip.  I had been used to a lot of red rock and this was mostly white with bits of coral color mixed in. With the different mixture of color and texture it made it look like a lot of the rock had designs cut into them, which added another layer to the surroundings.  I got to drive through a very cool, yet kind of scary tunnel on my way around Zion.  It was pretty dark inside, but there were little windows carved into the rock every once in awhile that let some light in.  It was pretty cool to look up and see the rock windows once you were down below.  I definitely want to go back some time and go in the park.  The only bad thing, is that you can’t drive in the park itself, you have to park and ride a bus inside which seems like kind of a hassle.  From there I drove to up to Cedar City where I got some great pictures of a full moon shining brightly above the mountains, and camped out.  What a great way to end the day =)