Zion National Park

We caught an afternoon flight out to Las Vegas on Wednesday. We flew Allegiant. It was the worst. The flight was loaded an hour early (WHY?!) and was bumpy for over an hour. Jackson nearly got sick! It took 4 hours to get to Vegas which felt like 9 years.

Kind man taking the middle seat

I took this assuming it was Kansas.
According to my phone's GPS when we landed, IT WAS!

Tip: do not come into town when a presidential debate is happening. We landed without issue but there was a ground transportation stop that wasn't lifted for about 30 minutes so we stood outside waiting in line for a rental car shuttle. LAME! 

Naturally once we got our car and headed out of town it was time to find a Tropical Smoothie Cafe for a late dinner. YUM! 

He's decided he doesn't like photos with his food anymore.
I know. SO ANNOYING.

We drove from Las Vegas to Mesquite, NV (right on the AZ line) so we'd be closer to hiking. The drive was super easy with 75 MPH speed limits and aside from some seasonal wind, it was smooth as could be. We were pretty spent by the time we checked into our hotel in Mesquite so we called it a night.

Nevada is on Pacific time so we woke up at 5 a.m. since that was plenty late for us. The sun was not even up yet! We peeked out from our balcony (Yes! A Holiday Inn Express with a balcony!) and got a look at what we'd missed by coming in at night.

Sunrise shot

Lovely!

 We really loved the drive from Mesquite to Zion National Park. It was winding through a canyon with massive walls on each side. It was so gorgeous.

A snap from the passenger seat
doesn't do it justice.

 We got to Zion by about 9:30 local time and headed out to the Watchman Trail.

Let's roll!

Some of the tail

Jackson's silhouette 

Trail view

View from the top

Trying to take a decent Petefish photo
at the top. Not happening.

We passed a lot of FSU fans! 

We finished the morning hike and headed into town to grab lunch. We went to this wonderful little place called MeMe's Cafe. We each had incredible burgers. 

Lunch with a view and a handsome guy = winning

After lunch we headed back into the park to explore a bit more since we'd paid $30 for entry! We drove through the longest tunnel ever. We recorded it for Susie (she is afraid of tunnels) and it took us over 3 minutes to get through it without traffic. We found another quick hike with some amazing views.

 

Can you spot Jackson?!

Quite the drop

Ehh...this little bridge

The view from a little carve out
LOVED IT! 

The trail got a little...skinny.

I loved this view of the winding road

 

Big horn sheep!!!

We finished the warm hike and headed for Kanab, Utah for the evening. We drove around town catching the awesome sunset over the rocks before dining at a local place. That was a mistake. The meal was so gross. :( Cannot win them all! We're looking forward to more beautiful scenery tomorrow.