St. George, Utah

We toured parts of Zion National Park the other day.

Wow! It’s an amazing place.

We weren’t able to do the scenic canyon tour because it’s only open for bus tours and we can’t take Sophie on it, but we still were amazed with all we saw.

First off, here are my last pictures from the park. We at our picnic lunch from under this tree with these spectacular views.

This is the road we drove up and down. In the middle of the drive is a tunnel that’s over one mile long. Thankfully, there are holes letting sunlight in periodically because the dark can get a bit overwhelming. 🙂 

Stunning just doesn’t begin to describe the vistas…In addition to all the beautiful rock formations, we are back in PINE TREES–my favorite flora!

Just a beautiful drive…

Here are some closeups of what the wind and water have done to the sandstone. 

Almost too much to take in at once. 

This is called the Checkerboard Mesa. The vertical lines are caused by wind etching the layers of sandstone. The horizontal lines are more rare, and they are caused by water seeping into cracks and then expanding. 

The diversity of colors is just amazing!

I think they added red dirt to the asphalt mix because the roads within the park are tinged with red. Sophie enjoyed Zion, too!