Thursday, March 25, 2004 These long travel days with an RV are rough!! We actually managed to drive over 200 miles today, barely, WHEW!! Our original plan was to dry camp in a national forest again but alas this was not to be. Apparently they haven't heard about the rule we had in Arizona about all the snow being melted above 7,000 feet by the first of March. Cedar Breaks in southern Utah had a bunch of open camping spots, but we didn't have the courage to try and drag 20,000 lbs plus of 5th Wheel and Ford through a foot or more of snow just to camp. Consequently we wound up at an RV park in Glendale Utah for the next two nights. (This was to be the first of two times we had to stay in an RV park during the trip.) Friday, March 26, 2004 Zion National Park by Motorcycle One of the things we've learned about "camping" in this manner is that we usually get to bed at a reasonable hour, it also means that we tend to get out of bed early. Since the plan today was to visit Zion National Park we rolled out of the rack before seven and Joe put us together a small breakfast to sustain us for the better part of the day. We managed to have the bike pointed in the general direction of Zion National Park around nine in the morning. All morning the weather had steadily gone down hill and it wasn't getting any better on the 25 mile trip to the park entrance. As if on cue, as we were approaching the park entrance the rain stopped and the sun even tried to peek out. It stayed that way until we were almost back to the entrance five or six hours later but basically we were done riding in the rain for the day. Zion, unlike Yellowstone, can be crossed in virtually an hour if you are in an exteme hurry, it's only about 13 miles across. But who's in a hurry anyway? We can't really say we're on vacation, how about temporarily unemployed or as Joe likes to tell people, "We have a leisurely attitude towards employment". Teri had never been to Zion before so the full tour was in order. Since our visit to Switzerland a couple of years ago she's become a fan of tunnels. You see in Switzerland, if they can't easily build a road around it, they just dig a hole through it, as Fessi says. Therefore Teri has taken to calling these works of modern engineering "dig-a-holes". Yeah I know, it loses something in the translation but then again maybe she'd had a couple of cocktails when the idea presented itself. Teri wasn't to be dis-appointed when it comes to "dig-a-holes" in Zion. The engineers found two spots that they just couldn't go around. One is just a little tunnel that you can see the exit from the entrance, no big deal. The other one is impressive by American standards. This tunnel stretches 1.1 miles (1.8 km) and was built during the 1930's. Now you have to remember, cars were just a touch smaller back then and a motorhome was basically a Ford Model T truck with a WWI army cot & blanket in the back. That is to say this tunnel is NOT designed for modern traffic, motorcycles however need not worry about height and width restrictions. There are however, regular delays entering this tunnel from either side due to size restrictions on motorhomes and buses. Unfortunately we here in the U.S.A. have not embraced the European practice of encouraging motorcycles to move to the front of the line, so after getting a dirty look from a park ranger we were firmly placed towards the front of the line. If you look at a map of Zion National Park you will find a road that goes up Zion Canyon about 6 miles then stops. Since 1999 this road has been closed to vehicular traffic after April 1st. Lucky for us, it's only March 26th. Timing is everything when comes to getting to see the "good stuff" by bike!! Touring a national park by motorcyle is about the only way to go, rain, shine, wind or traffic (especially traffic), you just can not experience the beauty of our national parks if you're couped up in a cage, even if you do have power windows. Don't forget to go back up to the top and check out the pictures!!

Click Any Photo For a larger image!! Click Any Photo For a larger image!!

Now This is a DAM!!

NEXT!!!