Forty Years or so of Whiskey Papa's Casual Photography: June 2015

What, you thought we were going to Zion next? Well, yeah. That was the plan. I got my extra hour's sleep in Cedar City and headed for Zion. Like most national parks you only see a portion of it if you stick to the overlooks. In addition, Zion is different from the other parks because of the physical constraints of the Zion Gorge. There's no room for traffic in gorge so, if you want to see that part of it, you've got to park in what I think of as Greater Zion and take a shuttle bus in. On my first visit I was oblivious to the shuttle and the gorge. I thought I had seen it all - and loved it. On my next visit I caught on, but my schedule had no cushion for the shuttle. This time, I was going specifically to take the shuttle up the gorge but after five days on the road the combination of fatigue and early morning tourist traffic robbed me of my enthusiasm. Next time, it'll be Zion first and the shuttle bus into the gorge. That said, it was a curious feeling being able to take a shortcut through a national park without stopping at any overlooks or snapping any pictures. It was like the park is mine but I've got something to do, so the rest of you people can use it while I'm gone.

After taking my shortcut through Zion, the most direct route back home (which wasn't particularly direct, by the way) took me by Page AZ. By way of inspection I took a slight detour up to the Wahweap Overlook to check out Lake Powell. Panorama above covers the whole vista from Castle Rock on the left to the Glen Canyon Dam and bridge on the right.

So, having skipped the Zion shuttle and stopping only briefly at Lake Powell, I was actually a little bit ahead of schedule on my drive home. I had planned to stop at Socorro or Roswell NM but on arrival at both locations I didn't feel like stopping. Keep on truckin', dude. There were several times after passing Roswell that I wished I had stayed the night. I hadn't been paying attention to how much rain Texas had been getting while I was gone, but as soon as I crossed the state line I was in it. So the weather was lousy and I probably lost an hour because of it. And there really wasn't a good place to stop till I got to San Angelo. I pulled into the parking lot at Denny's and took a four hour nap, which did me a world of good. Made it home about 9:30 Saturday morning. . . then crashed for three days.

*****

These panoramas - or is it panoramae - are to recap the 2015 Spring Roadtrip in case there's a test next week. You'll want to be ready for it.