Tripometer – 10,437 mi
Gas Gauge – 820.974 gal
Location –Twin Hollows Campground, Mt Carmel, UT
Lodging – FREE
Cans of OFF – 4
The drive to Kanab, Utah was punctuated by beautifully colored rock formations surrounding valleys that were sparsely populated by greyish green foliage. The skies have cleared today and the colors are standing out much more than yesterday. Driving through the southwest has been an absolute wonder from a topography standpoint. We are stunned by the landscape many times each day, even driving down Interstate 15, the main North/South highway through Las Vegas, the surrounding hills and valleys look like a National Park.
Pink Coral Sands State Park was our first stop in searching for a campsite for the next few days. This park is fairly centrally located to both Zion and Bryce Canyons. Sadly when we arrived we found ‘the inn was full’. We moved on to check a few nearby BLM sites that might be available. Pulling into Twin Hollows Campground in the early evening we decided to cut our losses and settle into an available campsite in the little valley on the shores of the Virgin River. The campsite was hard packed dirt, about 45 minutes from the visitor center in Zion National Park and looked to be perfect for our needs. By that, we mean it’s a fairly secluded flat place that we can park the trailer on while we tour Bryce and Zion Canyons. As a bonus, this is a BLM land campsite and therefore free to stay.
Kelly and Dave went into the nearest town of Mt. Carmel for very expensive groceries while camp was being made. Perhaps driving further and putting up with city grocery shopping would have been a better idea.
We broke out all the stops and had a campfire with Dave this evening while we all relaxed from the days drive and planned tomorrow’s activities. The temperatures in this area are lower than we had anticipated and the warmth of the fire helped ward of the chill edge of the night breeze. The Williamson trailer desires a later wake up call in the morning than the Kakadelis trailer. Stratis has plans to venture into Zion at the crack of dawn and the rest of us plan on joining him in the park after leisurely coffee. As the fire dwindled tonight we heard what we determined to be the call of a Red Fox on the hill above our campsite. Ranger was not pleased.