Road Trip: Vegas, Zion and Coral Pink Sand

Sunday & Monday, May 20 & 21, 2018

Pongo and I headed out for a week-long road trip on Sunday.  Our destination was the Needles district of Canyonlands National Park to meet some friends and reflect on the life of our friend Malcolm who passed away a year ago.

Las Vegas, Nevada

We started our trip with a drive to Las Vegas.  We took I-5 South to Buttonwillow then cut over to Bakersfield, then through the Mojave Desert.  I love driving through that desert.  I think it's beautiful.  I've never been successful with photos of the place, though.

Las Vegas, NV

As is usual when I have Pongo with me, we stayed at the Motel 6 on Dean Martin Drive.  No trips to the casino or anything like that.  We go for a walk once the lights go down and that's about all of the excitement for the day there.  Well, except on this trip there was an EDM festival going on so the motel parking lot was full of young women walking around in lingerie.  I guess that's what folks wear to these things.  I wasn't complaining.  The motel has thick walls and loud air conditioning so we always sleep well there.

Zion National Park, UT

The next morning we headed East with the intent to camp someplace in Southwest Utah, with a handful of potential destinations in mind.  I figured we'd drive until it felt right.  I wasn't even sure which route we'd take.

Zion National Park, UT

As is obvious from the pictures, we took Highway 89 through Zion National Park.  That narrowed our cmping choices down nicely.  It also made for a nice scenic detour through the crowded national park. 

Zion National Park, UT

It's funny, I don't have a favorable impression of Zion.  I've driven through it twice now, once in Spring and once in Fall, and both times it seemed insufferably crowded.  However, everyone I know that has visited the park absolutely loved it.  So, I guess at some point I'll need to join the throng and see what this park is all about.  It certainly has amazing scenery.

Pongo Wants to Drive, Zion National Park, UT

After driving through Zion, our camping choice was obvious.  Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, which was about an hour East.  The state parks in Utah are great for the way we travel.  Camp sites are usually available if we get there early enough and they allow dogs on leash everywhere that people can hike.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, UT

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, UT

The sand definitely is an interesting color.  After a while my eyes got used to it and it just looked like sand.  This place is big with dune buggy folks.  Most of the dunes are open for riding on off-road vehicles, so it was a little noisy.  It was fun to watch them driving around.  Pongo and I had a nice nap on the dunes.

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, UT

Pongo, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, UT

Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, UT

Road Trip 2013: Day Five

Won't You Spare Me Over 'til Another Year?

September 19, 2013

Soundtrack:

• Cibo Matto -- Viva La Woman!
• American Music Club -- Mercury

Thursday I found myself back on the road heading to California.  It started with the biggest mistake of my trip, which was wasting the early morning hours at Bryce Canyon.

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

I woke up before dawn again.  What I should have done was head directly to the Queen's Garden Trail.  I'd have been able to get down the trail and back and on the road by nine o'clock.  I'd still have been able to make a leisurely drive and made it to Panamint Springs before dark.  I wouldn't have been able to horse around in Death Valley much, that would have been the trade off.  I can do Death Valley in a weekend, though.  That's not the case with Bryce Canyon.  Well, hindsight is twenty-twenty, right?

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

It wasn't a horrible mistake, mind you.  I got some great early morning shots from Inspiration Point.  I'd been there in the evening and knew the place would light up a lot better in the morning.  It certainly did.  It was freezing, though, so I didn't stick around to take a lot of pictures.  My plan was to take a leisurely drive through Zion National Park then on to Vegas and Death Valley.  I figured if I got tired of driving I'd just stop in Las Vegas for the night.

Zion National Park, UT

Zion is about a two hour drive from Bryce Canyon.  When you hit the red paved roads of the park, you know you've arrived at someplace special.

Zion National Park, UT

The highlight for me was seeing a small herd of bighorn sheep along the side of the road.  I've never seen bighorn sheep in the wild.  I've always heard they're a bit elusive.  These guys didn't seem to be too bothered by the cars and people stopping to take pictures.  They didn't even seem to mind the kid yelling "Fight!  Fight!" at them.  Such patience.

Desert Bighorn Sheep -- Zion National Park, UT

It looks like there's a lot to see and do in Zion.  I'm definitely going to have to take a few days to spend there next time.  There's even a ghost town nearby.  I've never been to a ghost town.  I hear there's one near Mono Lake.  I need to check that out, too.

Zion National Park, UT

After Zion I headed on to Las Vegas.  Well, I basically drove around the outskirts of Las Vegas.  That's an interesting town.  I stopped at a casino for lunch.  I ate at the buffet.  It wasn't bad.  I won sixty dollars playing roulette.  Yeah, I'm pretty much a high roller.

Virgin River, North Fork, UT

If you're heading to Death Valley from Las Vegas, it's pretty easy to get there.  You head up Interstate 95 until you get to Highway 373, where you turn left.  You'll know you're at the intersection of 95 and 373 because the Space Alien Brothel is right there at the intersection.  You can't miss it.  There's a big pink sign and space aliens.

Dante's View, Death Valley National Park, CA

The nice part about coming in off of 373 is that it sets up a trek out to Dante's View pretty well.  The fourteen mile road to the viewpoint is right on the way into the valley.  I didn't go to the viewpoint last time I was in Death Valley because it's so far out of the way.  It's well worth the drive, though.  If the view looks familiar to you but you can't place it, if you go back and watch Star Wars again you'll recognize it as Mos Eisley.

Death Valley National Park, UT

After taking in that amazing view, I headed down to Furnace Creek, where the temperature gauge outside the general store read 120 degrees.  I'm skeptical that it was that hot, but it was definitely hotter than the 34 degrees I'd woken up to that morning.  I was going to drive down to Badwater Basin where the road was recently washed out by a flash flood, but it was getting late and I wanted to walk the Mesquite Flat Dunes in my bare feet before it got dark, so I headed there instead.

Mesquite Flat Dunes, Death Valley National Park, CA

I'm fascinated by these dunes.  The sand is very different than what you'd find on a beach.  The winds forms almost a hard crust on the surface that is lined with little ridges.  The dunes drift, but they don't move.  There have been sand dunes on this same spot for a hundred and fifty years.  I'm sure they've actually been there a lot longer than that.  There will be dunes in this spot for years or even centuries to come.  This is the point where wind current collide in the valley, dropping the dust they are carrying in the process.  It's amazing to me that these massive dunes could be created simply by dust in the wind.  That's all they are, just dust in the wind.

Mesquite Flat Dunes, Death Valley National Park, CA

Yeah, I know.  Now that stupid song is stuck in your head.

Mesquite Flat Dunes, Death Valley National Park, CA

I made it to Panamint Springs after dark.  That place is awesome.  It has a restaurant and a bar and the entire campground has wifi access.  There's zero cell phone coverage, which I don't mind since I so rarely use the damned thing.  The night air was incredible.  It was warm, probably over seventy degrees, with a nice dry breeze blowing.  After shutting the bar down (it closes at 9:00, fwiw) I sat outside in the warm air with no shirt on, smoked a cigar and finished off the beer in my cooler.  What a great night, a fitting final evening to my road trip.