From the North Rim to Zion National Park

We only  spent three nights at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Knowing what we know now (hindsight and all) we would have stayed a few more days. As we left the Rim and drove to lower elevations, we enjoyed the views of Vermillion Cliffs and the surrounding Kaibab National Forest.

At Fredonia, Arizona, we turned off the highway we were on (89A) and took 389 toward Hurricane, Utah. On our way  we stopped at Pipe Spring National Monument. Pipe Spring is now a ranch, but was originally built as a fort. When it was completed, the fort was no longer needed. This is Winsor Castle, the one time fort, then a stopover for Mormons on their way to Hurricane to have their marriages sanctified by the church. The road from Pipe Spring to Hurricane was known as 'Honeymoon Trail.'

 Inside the 'fort' are two buildings. This also was the first telegraph office in Arizona. The building you see, housed the telegraph office while the building we are standing in was the living quarters.

 This room is under the telegraph office. It was the refrigerator room. Pipe Spring runs through the trough at the bottom of the wall, keeping the room a cool 55 degrees year round. The only windows are the small rectangles over the trough which were slots for rifles in the original plan.

 This a view of another side of Winsor Castle. The green is algae on a holding pool where the spring runs out of the building and into two pools.

After touring Winsor Castle we walked around the ranch and up to the ridge overlooking the area.

Then it was time to get back on the road. Our next stop would be Wally World in Hurricane to get a few things before entering Zion National Park.

Well, that was our plan, but all good plans don't always pan out like you want. Once we arrived at Zion, we found out the campground was full! On our last visit, 4 years ago, there were three campgrounds in town plus BLM (Bureau of Land Management) campsites near the Virgin River outside the park. Not so this trip. There is only one campground in town and the BLM sites have been closed due to abuse of the area! We were able to get into the one campground in town and we hated everything about it! First the price, $43--that's what we pay in the off season at Disney! The sites were crammed next to each other, worse than KOA's where we've stayed. The campground was a gravel parking lot behind a motel! Early the next morning Bob and I went back to Zion and found a couple leaving--we put a tag on the site and went back for the rv. Yippee! We were in the park! Our budget was not ruined! Since we had been on the road for over a month, the city campground only added $1 a day to our average--we were up to $63 a day. Keep in mind that $75 is what we like to average. Also know that the rv hasn't needed gas for quite some time since we aren't traveling far between stops.