Palisade State Park

We are still in Utah near the bustling town of Sterling. This is another one nighter but we had some time to get in a short hike. Tomorrow we will be in Colorado. Jenny has a sore spot on her leg that started out as a small scrape but has blossomed into a worrisome sore. We sent a picture of it to our Dr. In Beaufort and he sent a prescription to a Walgreens in Grand Junction. We'll pick it up tomorrow. The temp here was below 95° all day. The forecast tonight is 59°.

Snow Canyon SP

We only drove something like 35 miles to get here. The park is on the outskirts of St George. The purpose of our stop here was so that we could see the Mountain Meadows Site. A group of California bound Arkansas settlers were besieged for several days by some members of a Mormon militia that were suspicious of them for some reason. The settlers were out of water and ammunition. They were approached by the militia leader carrying a white flag and they thought they were negotiating a surrender. They were divided into 3 groups, men, women and children and marched off in 3 different directions where they were summarily killed. The only people not murdered were children younger than 7. About 130 people were killed and left to rot where they fell. 7 young children were placed with Mormon families. This all occurred in 1857. It wasn't until 1859 that the US Army buried the victims scattered, scavenged remains. That large rock pile is where their remains are buried. 17 years later a grand jury indicted 9 Mormon militiamen for crimes related to the massacre. They all disappeared except for John D. Lee. In 1877 he was brought to the Mountain Meadows site and executed by firing squad. There's much more to this story, all of it awful, except that the children were eventually returned to relatives in Arkansas. We move north tomorrow. 

White Bison day 8 (last day)

We got up early again and headed to the park so that we could get a parking spot at the visitors center. Today is Saturday so when we got to the entrance station there was a very long line to get in. I was pretty sure we were screwed but we weren't. We found a spot with no problem. The only issue we had was that the tour we had booked didn't leave until 10:30 and it was 7:45. We had breakfast again at the Lodge, that's the 3rd time, fiddled around some, did a short hike and worked our way back to the Visitors center in time for our tour. It was interesting. Our Ranger guide was a college History Major so the focus of the tour was the history of the park. I've included a couple of pics of our trip to Kanab and the rest were taken today. We move a few miles further West tomorrow because there is a Monument that I've wanted to visit for many years. I encourage you to google "The Mountain Meadows Massacre". That is where we will be spending some time tomorrow. 

White Bison day 7

The kids and Grandparents split up today. The kids left their respective TeePees at 11:00 and headed for Las Vegas for flights home tomorrow. Jenny and I headed for the laundromat because we had some quarters that were weighing us down. We have booked a Ranger guided tour for tomorrow morning. That will probably be our last Zion activity. We had to break camp briefly today and drive into La Verkin to dump our holding tanks. This place is still trying to get permits for a sewer system for the campground. Our proximity to the Virgin River is holding up the precess apparently. As the kids left we took 3 "parting shots". I have posted all three. Our day tomorrow is our last day here, but we still have a destination that is West of here before we reverse course and start home.

White Bison day 6

This was another one of those days that old people should maybe have second thoughts about participating fully in all of the activities. Our primary adventure was a 3 hour ski boat rental on a small reservoir not far from here. Since the afternoon temps have been hovering around 110° a water based activity made perfect sense. There was a rocky island in the lake where cliff jumping was possible. All of the Grandkids, including Sydney, made several climbs up the cliff so that they could jump off. None of the adults participated. That would be called 'common sense'. The crowd needed to do laundry, so we spent some time in Springdale. While we waited on the drying cycle to finish we visited several tourist centered stores. Lindsay agreed to buy her kids those grass flip flops. I'm fairly confident that they will be the only citizens of SC wearing them. We finished the day with a game of Golf. Jamie won by such a wide margin that we were all convinced he cheated some how. The mob leaves tomorrow. Jenny and I will stay one more day and try to recover 

White Bison day 5

Today was epic. We got up early because the parking lot at the visitors center generally fills up at around 8 o'clock. We parked there and took the shuttle bus to the lodge for a big breakfast. This time of year the only option for seeing Zion Canyon is by using the free shuttle bus system. Finding a place to park at the visitors center makes access to that system a breeze. We did a hike along the river after breakfast and eventually rode the shuttle to the end of the road for a hike, up stream, into the Narrows of the Virgin River.  We were far from alone during that hike. Actually I can't really describe it as a hike. The river had a fairly strong current and the river bottom is covered in large rocks making footing treacherous. It was a challenge requiring pretty continuous concentration. The group rented some water boots that were highly recommended. See the pic. We walked up stream about 2 miles and then turned around. The gorge is very narrow and 2000 feet deep. The scenery was spectacular but for the most part everyone was intensely focused on every step so there wasn't a lot of looking around. All in all today was a good day. I doubt anyone will forget it. Tomorrow we have a boat rented on a nearby lake. Hopefully we can negate the forcast 109° temp by staying wet. 

White Bison day 4

We drove through the park toward Kanab. We visited Coral Pink Sand Dunes SP and then went to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary for a 90 minute tour. The weather has been abysmaly hot. It was 109° for part of the afternoon. Tomorrow is our hike up the Virgin River narrows. I'm curious to see how that goes. I'll let you know tomorrow.