We met our tour leader  "Steve", at 7.30am in the hotel lobby, along with the rest of the group. Introductions of name, country and "what we were like to do" broke the ice as we were going to be together for  the next 7 days. A mixed group of ages and countries;  UK, Ireland, USA and Australia (Geelong). Signed our lives away in forms, agreed on shared lunches and then we climbed into the minivan for our Canyon & Indian Lands Tour through Zion National Park, Monument Valley, Bryans Canyon and Grand Canyon.  

It didn't take long before the buildings of Las Vegas were a distant memory.  Stretched out before us was the vast landscape of the deserts, of canyons, ridges, barren mountains, gorges and open spaces. Fantastic.  The roads are good as they weve their way through this environment,  sometimes the landscape has been changed to create access through a mountain - obviously cheaper to blast and cut through a mountain than go around.  

Stopped at Utah border to get a permit, Steve says the time here will depend "on how nice the are, which depends on what kind of day the are having". Steve got back in the minivan and reported "one of them was in a mood"!   We then stopped at Hurricane (although no hurricane has come through) to shop at Walmart, buying enough lunch food for 4 days, some shoes to walk through water, bottles for water, sunscreen and any other last minute items.

 Our first stop at Hurricane was at a liquor store for those who wanted to drink, as this is Utah and many areas are dry areas because of the Mormon faith. Steve informed us that Mormons dont drink alchol, smoke, have caffeine or tea, and because some are polygamists, we will be able to see extensive family stickers on the back of cars (any number of adults, lots of children and numerous pets!)

Next stop was to make our lunch and enjoy a great salad sandwich in a park before setting off for Zion National Park.

Zion National Park was named by the early Mormon settlers of Utah who thought of it as their "promised land".  It has steep cliffs, narrow canyons, and unpredictable weather which adds to the challenge and adventure in this park.  The cliffs have biblical names like; Court of the Patriarchs, Angels Landing,  which reflect the faith.   The Narrows is a gorge in a section of the Zion Canyon (photo)  The Virgin River has carved a spectacular gorge in the upper reaches of Zion Canyon - 16 miles long, up to 2000 feet deep, and at times 20-30 feet wide. The Narrows,  with ita soaring walls, sandstone grottos, natural springs,  and hanging gardens are beautiful.  Hiking the Narrows, means hiking in the Virgin River, and that is what we did on our first day in Zion Canyon - got wet hiking the Narrows! As there was forecasts of rain, which can result in flash flooding in the river, we only walked for about 30 minutes up stream. As we turned to walk back we felt drops of rain, but it wasnt until we were out of the gorge thatvit really started to rain.

The landscape is amazing. Gigantic sandstone canyons and cliffs of various colors from brilliant white to red soared above us. The river bed had cut a path through the sandstone and had created the most amazing rock formations. It was a fantastic trek.