Friday, October 13, 2000
Glendale, UT - Oct 13
We are staying for a few weeks in Glendale, UT, which is conveniently located for Zion and also close to many interesting places we did not know existed. We decided to extend our stay after learning that Doug's brother Rodger and his family would be in Tucson for Thanksgiving. We will arrive in Tucson 2 weeks later than we had planned and stay through Thanksgiving, so we can see them all.
The first place we found out about was Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Those of you who know us well, know that one of the things we miss most is our volunteer work with the Humane Society of Boulder Valley. Best Friends is the nation's largest no-kill shelter and currently houses over 1800 animals, most being cats & dogs. It is located about 20 miles from our RV park. We took a tour and liked what we saw, so we inquired about volunteering. They LOVE to have people volunteer, even for very short times, and were happy to have us. So we have been over there a couple of times, mostly petting cats (it's rough, but someone has to do it!) and actually doing some cleaning work. We plan to go back several more times before we leave here. It is a truly wonderful place. For more info look on the web at www.bestfriends.org.
Also interesting, Best Friends is the largest employer in the county (about 170 emps), so there is more interesting shopping than we have found in other parts of UT. We can get really nice vegetarian things at the grocery store, plus there is a nice health food store in Kanab. And we found Paul Newman's chocolate there, too!
We have been to Zion three times, twice to the southern section and once to the northern (Kolob Canyon) section. The south part is so large, it takes a day just to get oriented. They have a shuttle into the main canyon, which helps keep the crowds down. It's funny how people almost always talk about Bryce & Zion in the same sentence. There is nothing similar about them except for their location. Each is a truly unique place and should be experienced as such. Zion Canyon is a canyon floor with all the greenery associated with water in an otherwise desert environment, but it is framed by huge walls of sandstone cliffs, rising so high that you get a crick in your neck from looking up all the time. The second time we went, we took two hiking trails. One was to all of the Emerald Pools, which was quite lovely. The other was a sort of nature/bike trail that was quite interesting. We saw an arch on the side of a mountain that we would have not noticed if a sign hadn't pointed it out. We plan to go back for one or two more days of hiking there. We also hiked while in the north part, which was really pleasant and quite uncrowded.
Another day we drove to Cedar Breaks NM, looked out all the overlooks you could drive to and hiked to two more. This place is more comparable to Bryce but much deeper & steeper because of the quicker pace of the erosion process which is still taking place. In fact, it is happening quickly enough that they can't build trails down into the canyon because they would get washed out too quickly. Plus, not many would want to hike the 2500 feet elevation loss/gain. The road to Cedar Breaks passes through miles of lava flows formed only about 5000 years ago.
A lot of the area near Kanab was used as settings for many western movies. Just driving down any road is quite spectacular. The rocks are formed into swirls & mounds and layered with many colors. The drive to Zion from the East is as spectacular as any other part of Zion. It is almost impossible to imagine the forces that created all these amazing rock formations.
The first place we found out about was Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Those of you who know us well, know that one of the things we miss most is our volunteer work with the Humane Society of Boulder Valley. Best Friends is the nation's largest no-kill shelter and currently houses over 1800 animals, most being cats & dogs. It is located about 20 miles from our RV park. We took a tour and liked what we saw, so we inquired about volunteering. They LOVE to have people volunteer, even for very short times, and were happy to have us. So we have been over there a couple of times, mostly petting cats (it's rough, but someone has to do it!) and actually doing some cleaning work. We plan to go back several more times before we leave here. It is a truly wonderful place. For more info look on the web at www.bestfriends.org.
Also interesting, Best Friends is the largest employer in the county (about 170 emps), so there is more interesting shopping than we have found in other parts of UT. We can get really nice vegetarian things at the grocery store, plus there is a nice health food store in Kanab. And we found Paul Newman's chocolate there, too!
We have been to Zion three times, twice to the southern section and once to the northern (Kolob Canyon) section. The south part is so large, it takes a day just to get oriented. They have a shuttle into the main canyon, which helps keep the crowds down. It's funny how people almost always talk about Bryce & Zion in the same sentence. There is nothing similar about them except for their location. Each is a truly unique place and should be experienced as such. Zion Canyon is a canyon floor with all the greenery associated with water in an otherwise desert environment, but it is framed by huge walls of sandstone cliffs, rising so high that you get a crick in your neck from looking up all the time. The second time we went, we took two hiking trails. One was to all of the Emerald Pools, which was quite lovely. The other was a sort of nature/bike trail that was quite interesting. We saw an arch on the side of a mountain that we would have not noticed if a sign hadn't pointed it out. We plan to go back for one or two more days of hiking there. We also hiked while in the north part, which was really pleasant and quite uncrowded.
Another day we drove to Cedar Breaks NM, looked out all the overlooks you could drive to and hiked to two more. This place is more comparable to Bryce but much deeper & steeper because of the quicker pace of the erosion process which is still taking place. In fact, it is happening quickly enough that they can't build trails down into the canyon because they would get washed out too quickly. Plus, not many would want to hike the 2500 feet elevation loss/gain. The road to Cedar Breaks passes through miles of lava flows formed only about 5000 years ago.A lot of the area near Kanab was used as settings for many western movies. Just driving down any road is quite spectacular. The rocks are formed into swirls & mounds and layered with many colors. The drive to Zion from the East is as spectacular as any other part of Zion. It is almost impossible to imagine the forces that created all these amazing rock formations.
# posted by Doug and Willie @ 7:02 PM 
