St. George, UT and the Virgin River Canyon, AZ

After a week of rain, rain, and more rain and then a week of work, I was ready to "get the heck out of Dodge" !!  I took off to St. George, UT, an historic Mormon town with an Eddie Bauer outlet and a recommendation of a fun little restaurant.  You know how I like good food.

I also was in quest of a bottle of wine or some such libation to celebrate the arrival of my friends from Knoxville the following week.  Utah, being a mostly Mormon state, has very strick liquor laws and few outlets.  I was not prepared for what was to follow.

This house, on the National Historic Register, was the summer home of one of the early Mormon leaders, Brigham Young, in St. George.

Side view of Brigham Young's house

Beautifully presented crab cakes in a lovely, chic restaurant in St. George.  The food was excellent; wish I could say the same for the service.  For $30, including wine and tip, I expected more attention.!

The Arizona state line 8 miles south of St. George,, headed toward Las Vegas on I-15, through a 23 mile stretch of Arizona for which I was totally unprepared.

Typical of most of Utah, irrigated fields are backed by majestic mountains.

This is the start through the Virgin River Canyon.  Just imagine, a river carved this canyon over eons.  We will change elevations, I'm imagining, between 3,000 ft. and 5,000 ft., first down and then up. and then down again.

There are no words to describe how insignificant I felt here.

Trailers were in low gear with tail lights flashing.

There were occasional patches of green, but they were sparse and scarce.

Ditto

Mission accomplished: if you want a decent selection and reasonable prices on wine, etc., Nevada is the place to go.  These are the mountains we came south through.  Now we're headed north through them again.  What a trip inspired by the search for a bottle of wine.

Back in Utah and headed home to Zion Canyon, which is very different from today's canyon experience.

clouds for Carol

The river valley south of the town of Springdale and Zion Canyon and National Park.

Late afternoon, looking east.

The photo doesn't do the clouds justice, just as most photos don't do justice to the scenery.

An improvement

I never tire of the scenery and the sky in the West....

                                                                  Or even a gathering storm.

Here's The Watchman, overlooking my driveway up the canyon.

Home again.