More of Zions

I spent a week camp at a campground outside of Zions - By far one of the cleahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnest and nicest campgrounds I have ever stayed in. Wonderful restrooms with great tile showers and all spotless. The grounds were perfect with good hook-ups - level sites, some shade trees for the summer...not much now, but still a perfect campground. If you are ever in the neighborhood oz Zion and need a campground spend a few extra bucks and stay here. The name is Zion River Resort. LINK.

Anyway - I spent several days in the park and just had a wonderful experience...one of my favorite places to visit and one of the most beautiful places on earth. I went on a few hikes and the hike just past the big tunnel called the Overlook hike is well worth the time it takes...the view which you will see in a minute is outstanding and shows a little of how massive the Canyon really is.

On with the pics...

Checkerboard Mesa in Winter



On the overlook hike...



More views on the hike...



One of the more thrilling parts of the trail - it was very narrow and wet and slippery and the drop on the left of the picture was well over 300 feet or so...



This is looking back towards the peaks behind you at the overlook.



And finally the view from the top at the overlook - this is a 9 shot panorama, so you can imagine the expanse.



Some detail shots





A closeup of one of the millions of HooDoo's in the park.



On one morning I was able to literally walk among a herd of deer.













That is pretty much it for Zion - update on yesterdays trip through Bryce Canyon and on to Moab later this morning...

Captain Jim

Change of Venue - Back to Zions National Park!

I left Mesquite Nevada on Tuesday and made the short drive from there back to the Zions National Park area, found a great campground with reasonable weekly rates and will be here a week.

Got up Wednesday morning and caught up on a little work, then headed into Zions to shoot some pictures...had a great day, walked a bunch, nice fresh air and relatively warm in the 50's, it was a little cool in the morning and overnight, but not too bad, trailer stayed warm!

So the first picture is for all of the people who I used to work with back in the corporate world...I just had to buy this T-Shirt.



Now some more traditional photos of the great scenery in Zions!

















And now a few multiple shot pic - Panoramas












Still enjoying my travels and the little house gets more and more comfortable as I get things more organized and used to living in the small environment.

Capt Jim

Valley of Fire State Park

After several days in Mesquite, catching up on some work and some chores, like Laundry and continuing to re-arrange things in the trailer and pick up some supplies, I began to research things close by to go and see...a Nevada State Park about 50 miles away kept coming up as the place to go in my search. Great reviews for photography, camping and hiking, so on Friday I headed out...filled the car, bought some groceries and began the 50 mile trip.

I knew it was Red Rock Country one of my favorite types of landscape so I was anxious to get there, find a campsite and settle in for the evening. Sadly, I forgot this was a holiday weekend (Presdients Day), but I soon found out when there was one site left and it was a site without hook-ups which was fine, except it would limit my length of stay since I had neglected to fill my water tank.

But I got settled in a beautiful site with tremendous views...



I had the supplies necessary for a good evening...



And of course some wood for a fire and dogs for the grill!



Early on Saturday morning, after some coffee - I headed out for some hiking and some photography....the place was unbelievable!





















This was a worthwhile stop and some exceptional scenery...now back to Mesquite to plan my next stop and adventure....

Capt Jim

Finding Nemo! Where am I...

Have received several emails wondering about an update of my location and what I have been up to...well I am at a spot where I can upload some pictures and give you an update of the last several weeks.

I finished the Sportsman Show in Puyallup, Washington on Sunday January 29th. Had fun with Nicky and Ryan, although I am not too sure we had a ton of success at this show, just didn't seem like our market. We did spend some time with 3 or 4 very interested parties, we'll see if they book! I spent Sunday night at the fairground campground where I had been staying during the show. Rainy and muddy campsite, but the price was reasonable and of course close to the show.

On Monday morning the 30th of January I left Puyallup and headed down to Boring, Oregon to some friends where I needed to load up the rest of my stuff which I had left there while waiting for the weather to clear in Tacoma so I could have the hitch installed and pick up my new home.

I stayed in Boring two nights and loaded up the trailer and got it ready to travel. It took almost one full day to get things loaded, unpacked and somewhat put away, although I am still overloaded and finding little hiding niches to put things.

I am sure I overstayed my welcome in Boring and figured I better get a move on and left Boring on Wednesday the 1st of February, headed for Salt Lake City to get some medical things taken care of for my USCG License renewal. So I drove across I-84 and ended up sleeping with the truckers in a truck stop in Baker City Oregon. Got fuel in the morning and keep on truckin towards Salt Lake City. I arrived in Salt Lake City on Thursday evening the 2nd of February. Got the trailer situated in my friends driveway and set about making the arrangements I needed for the medical tests required for my Coast Guard License renewal. This took awhile to get scheduled, so I spent almost a week here.

Finally got the Ultrasound scheduled for Thursday the 9th of February at 9:00 am. Very nice people and they did a great job. Found out some interesting information about just how lucky I am to be alive after my stroke of several years ago, but that is for another post. I spent the rest of Thursday installing an electric water heater probe in the trailer, which I now find works wonderfully. It involved a trip to Lowes, a new circuit breaker and some pretty extensive wiring, but got it accomplished and tidied up the trailer and got ready to head South for warmer climates Friday the 10th of February.

Beautiful clear sunny day for the rive down I-15 towards St George, Utah. Planned on hooking up with some old Park City friends in Hurricane Utah and do some exploring around Zions National Park and Bryce Canyon. Drove as far as just North of St George and spent another evening in a rest area, listening to diesel trucks run all night. But managed a good sleep and fueled up with coffee and gas in the morning and continued on towards Hurricane, only to find out my friends no longer lived there and were in their RV down on the Baja Peninsula. Oh well, scouted around Zions a little and then decided to head further South and find an inexpensive place to stay and catch up on work and relax a little.

Here are a few pics from the trip South.





















After exploring around Hurricane and determined to work my way back this way later in the Spring, I got back on I-15 and headed towards Nevada. I ended up in Mesquite, where I am now. Managed to find a nice inexpensive RV site at a casino here, cheap rate, cheap food and a decent place to stay with full hook-ups including cable TV, nice rest rooms and it is quiet and clean, so will be here most of the week. Waiting for some money to transfer then will head somewhere, not sure just yet where it will be, Ah the life of not giving a shit!

May head towards the Grand Canyon, spend some time there then work on plans to head back up to Southern Utah and finally make my way towards Montana before going back up to Alaska!

Stay tuned for more of my adventures and some more photos as they get taken.

Capt Jim