Arriving at Zion Lodge up Zion Canyon, my home for the next 2 1/2 months

The 3 mile drive up the Canyon to the Lodge is just the beginning of some of the most different and amazingly beautiful scenery I will share with you during my adventure "in the Park".  Arrival:  August 17, 2011.

I've adopted, as the introduction to the journeys of this phase of my life, the traditional National Park Service entrance signs.

As you exit Utah Highway 9, the road through Zion Park, to drive the 3 miles up the Canyon to the Lodge and accompanying facilities, this is your introduction.

...a glimpse of the tops of 2 of the mountains in a group known as The Court of the Patriarchs at the beginning of the drive...



..around every bend in the road, it's a different scene...and always that "different shade of blue" Western sky.

...and again...



Note the mountain in the background in the upper right corner...you're never far from them...

...and a few flowers along the way...cactus flowers to be specific...

...and some pretty hyacinth colored flowers... perhaps someone more horticulturally knowledgable of Western flowers can share their name with us...

...and a little natural Western landscaping...

I'll take you 360 degrees around my new home for the next 2 1/2 months.  We're looking up, up, up 70 to 80 degrees from the parking lot in a 100 yard wide canyon.  This view is looking in a northerly direction.



Same view, zoomed in...

...and looking west...



...and south...

...Oops I neglected east, but you'll see it later...

It's been a busy day with all that looking, orientation, and meeting my new cohorts in the Gift Shop.  Rochelle and Marcus have had a long day also.  We fold hundreds of tee shirts daily.  (Just wish everyone were required to work retail for 3 months.  They wouldn't be so blatant about the disarray they leave behind.)  Rochelle left a couple of weeks after I arrived to return to college in Minnesota, and Marcus returned to his home in Taiwan.

Tomorrow will bring new adventures, exploring a couple of the shorter trails here in the Canyon.

Until then, only the nightlights and the full moon brighten the night sky.