June 1: On to Zion

Last night, we took in the Cowboy Dinner Show at Ebenezer's Barn and Grill, which is connected to the Ruby's resort complex. The venue is quite nice, with high ceilings, a large stage, and lots of room for the audience to be seated at circular tables. We were escorted to a table by one of the performers who asked us where we were from. He exclaimed, “Wow, you're Americans!” The vast majority of those in attendance were European tourists from a variety of countries. A very nice Swiss couple from Zurich sat at our table, and were familiar with many of the places we have visited in their country. They are having a good time, and the exchange rate makes vacationing in the USA a genuine bargain.

The dinner was good, and the show was great. The performers where highly accomplished guitar and fiddle players who sang exceedingly well.

The most direct route from Bryce Canyon to Zion involves a low and narrow tunnel that is 1.5 miles long. Our RV would make it, but would require that the entire tunnel be shut down so we could drive right down the middle. This would have been quite expensive, so we opted for another route. The route we selected, Utah Highway 14 looked like no big deal on the map. When we turned on to it, there were warnings about 25 mph curves, 8% grades, and a 10,000 foot high mountain pass. We decided to go for it! If we had changed our route at that point, the detour would have added many miles to our trip. The road climbed steeply, and at the upper elevations we encountered miles of blown-down aspen trees, partial road washouts, snow fields, and ice covered lakes. We had no trouble negotiating the terrain with the rig. The road joined Interstate 15 at Cedar City, which, like other Utah towns we have encountered, had the look of prosperity with its picture-perfect houses with their well-tended gardens.

We are camped in an RV park at the gate of Zion National Park. The swollen, roaring Virgin river flows within 200 feet of our site, and tall peaks with near vertical cliffs loom on both sides of the canyon.