Took My Breath Away

There was no WiFi in our hotel room last night, so this post is a day late. But then, we did spend the night at the bottom of a canyon.

It was a day of breathtaking beauty yesterday. We made the drive to the Grand Canyon, and the first glimpse of it… just the scale of it takes your breath away. It cuts so deep, and you can see the layers of sandstone and limestone, literally hewn through the ages. Awesome.

Another long drive today – longer than we expected actually, so I was so ready to get out of the car when we arrived at Zion Canyon in Utah this evening. But we did get to drive through the Painted Desert, and we got pretty close to the Vermillion Cliffs. Big wind! I drove at one point, and I could actually feel the car shaking because the wind was so strong. And for a short stretch, there was enough sand being blown by the wind to reduce visibility. I didn’t drive for too long.

We spent the night at Zion Canyon Lodge at the bottom of Zion Canyon. It’s pretty spectacular. After entering Zion National Park, you have to drive through a long chain of switchbacks, through a long tunnel cut through the sandstone cliffs in 1930 (!), before you finally reached the lodge. By the time you get out of the car, the cliffs are towering above. J had a great time in the car - it was a roller coast for him. Near the end, he said “Phew! No car hit us.”

Our photos don’t do justice to the canyons we saw. And it was a particularly exciting day for K, the geography nerd.

A post on our hiking in Zion Canyon and our adjustment to the man-made wonder that is Las Vegas later.