Zion

Another bloody early start today - up at 5.45am so as to pack, check out and collect our rental car at 7am. We passed 'the' Las Vegas sign as we left the city, heading for Zion National Park, with an obligatory stop at Walmart en route.

The scenery out of Vegas was amazing; the desert surrounded by dunes and plateaus under a blistering sun, but just so desolate. As we neared Zion this turned into the more iconic sandstone mountains and as we carved roads through these mountains the view was indescribable in scale.

We arrived and parked up in Springdale, to get the free shuttle to Zion, where we picked up another free shuttle to view the park. The ridiculous heat put pay to any ideas of hiking so the shuttle was most welcome, and allowed us to get up close to the canyon carved by the Virgin River without dying of heat exhaustion!

Jumping off the shuttle at Big Bend, we dropped down into the river at the foot of Angels Landing. Despite every effort, the photos just don't do it justice...the people insane enough to hike to the top of this were so tiny they didn't lend any helpful scale!

Leaving Zion, we drove through the park itself, going through a series of tight switchbacks up the mointains before a mile-long, pitch-black tunnel, all the while surrounded by stunning scenery, as we made tracks towards Bryce Canyon.Read more