Leaving Las Vegas, Zion NAtionoal Park Less Snow, The East Entrance Tunnel, Easy Evening - Saturday

We each got a $10 comp on the players card and I threw in another $20 to play for a while on the video poker, I can make money last a lot longer on video poker than slots. I wasn't trying to spend a lot of time and ended up losing the $20.

It was a serious pain in the ass to get out of the parking garage but we were finally out and back on the strip trying to get on the 15 north. After a wrong turn and then back onto the strip we were then onto the freeway bombing north to Zion again.

It was a whole different experience going in this time. The temperature was in hte low 60s F and and there was not a ton of people around.

We were hoping to go to Bryce and then back to the Hotel so stopped at Zion Brew Pub again at the south entrance. We wanted food and a growler to take with us. The boys weren't super hungry and neither were we but the food helped us all feel a bit better. I checked our drive north for today and decided we would go to Bryce today instead on our way north to Pocatello Idaho. That made the rest of our day a lot more comfortable.

After food we drove up the east entrance road. I love the east entrance and the road that drops down the side of a nearly vertical wall of sandstone after popping out of the mile long tunnel.

This time we could see the top of the walls all around since there was not a deluge of snow falling on us. What a difference a couple days makes.

This is the beginning or the end of the east entrance road.

The road switchbacks up the draw then up the side of the canyon. Above there is a huge arch with a waterfall dropping out of the middle of it. The road pops out in the draw between it and the cliff to the right.

Such an amazing arch and one that I am sure would have a boat load of climbing routes in and around it but I am pretty sure it is off limits as a natural wonder of the park.

Only a few more turns up the hillside and the road goes into the tunnel. This tunnel is unlike Yosemite that went through pure granite and went dead straight. This one foes through sandstone and makes a number of turns as it goes. WAY easier to tunnel in sandstone than granite.

Like Yosemite's tunnel Zion's has portals out but these are far larger and more often, thanks to the sandstone. We had no cars behind us in the tunnel so I was able to slow at each portal.

This portal looks directly at the arch and the waterfall. No foot traffic is allowed in the tunnel as it would be amazing to see the view from the portal.

The rest of the east entrance climbs up the scoured upper reaches of the park, the places where it looks like glaciers were doing the work and not just liquid water. There is so much more to Zion than just he main canyon and a person could spend months just hiking back into all the various canyons and upper reaches of the park.

We made it back to the Thunderbird Best Western at Mt Carmel Junction and were in our room around 4pm. It was nice to land and have a calm and relaxing evening after all of the trip so far. We are winding down the trip now and have but a few days before we are back on the farm.

The first thing R did was to break out his Battlebot and start driving it around the parking area. Soon J joined him and they had some battles as I finished the unloading of the truck.

I had downloaded the recent Battlebots episode and some other stuff while in Vegas so we watched that before going over to get dinner at 7pm as the restaurant closes at 8pm.

Today we head north to Bryce canyon then on to Pocatello Idaho to see our friend's daughter and her family. We'll stay the night there then we will decide if we are going to go to Fairmont Hotsprings for a night by Butte or if we will head straight for home. It largely depends on the weather as we have 3 passes (at least) to go over between here and home. 2 on the 15 with one in Utah and the other in Idaho then we have Lookout pass on the 90 to contend with.

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