Valley of Fire to Zion National Park

08/08/13 to 11/08/13 - After leaving Las Vegas we drove north-east to the Valley of Fire.  This was a small area of incredible orange rock formations out in the desert.  We arrived in time for sunset where they were just beautiful glowing red and looking like flames licking at the sky (which is presumably why they are named so).  We camped just between some of the rocks in what was another contender for coolest campsite.

The next morning we got back on the freeway heading north and we stopped at Peggy Sue's, a proper old-school diner with a hefty, permed blonde waitress.  "Would you like some kworfie?" she said and we proceeded to expand our waistlines further still with a stack of pancakes...

Then it was back to the road...

...and on to Zion National Park.  It was the weekend and all the campsites within the 'perk' were full, so we found a nice one just outside the park.

Zion was organised in a similar way to Yosemite, with a shuttle system dropping people at the 'trailheads' (paths).  The shuttle had played a tape, narrating us through the park.  It was informative the first time but a bit tedious after hearing it two or three times.  This being Utah, most of the peaks and rocks are named after biblical figures.  We took a short walk by the river along the bottom of Zion Canyon, and then waded a bit through the river upstream towards the Narrows, which was pretty fun and refreshing.

Each day we had to drive through the Mt Carmel tunnel, which was a feat of engineering when it was built in 1930  and is about the same width as the Rotherhithe tunnel (there's even less room with a big american car).  The rocks either side of it are amazing and look like something out of a cartoon.  One was named after a chess board (Checkerboard Mesa) due to the pattern on the side of it.  There were frequently deer or desert mountain sheep in the road, which we had to stop for.

The next day we took on the legendary Angel's Landing trail, the final section of which was along the top of a ridge on smooth rocks, with 1000m drop-offs on each side.  Several people had died attempting this, but it was still busy, despite the heat.  There is a chain which you hang on to in case you lose your footing.  The view from up there at 2400m was incredible, looking down into the canyon below...