Zion

This was our first stop in the mid west, it's about 4 hours drive from Las Vegas but we were a little worried we would not be a ble to get a camping spot as there are only two campsites available and you are not allowed to camp in the national park anywhere else. It turned out on arrival that both camp sites were full but with a little pleading with the park ranger she gave us a spot. Shortly after pitching the tent we had a small herd of mule deer come within 10 feet of us eating the grass. 

The cacti below looked really beautiful so we decided to share them with you 

The next day and our only full day here we spent walking and jumping on and off the free shuttle bus to all the places we wished to visit. Daytime in this area of the west is hot even at this time of year, evenings can be cool with temps below freezing. 

On our way out of the canyon the following day we drove through a series of steep switch-backs finally driving through a tunnel cut through the heart of mountain. Once at the top of the canyon we took a short hike to some point or other that I can't remember the name of right now and looked back on the route out of Zion Canyon you can see the vista in the image below. 

There were so many things to see, obviously you need to like landscape and rock to appreciIate it I guess, but the patterns were amazing,  One area called the Chequerboard Mesa was symmetrically crossed horizontally and vertically with distinct lines making a chequer board pattern,  another entire mountain looked like slow poured vanilla and strawberry blamange with the soft ripples flowing down the shallow sides it looked so nice you could reach out and eat it. Sorry we didn't take pictures of these on the iPhone just with the camera. 

Helen I put my favourite traveling shit on again'