I startled my day in a nice comfy warm motel. I left early in the morning because I had heard that there was a white stone arch in the Escalante National Forest. Two glorious hours later I discovered I was on the wrong dirt road. An hour late I was on the right one standing in front of this huge arch. All alone, I fired up the drone. It wasn’t acting right, so I didn’t get the fabulous images I was imagining, but still it was a hell of a lot of fun.

After that I drove to Kodachrome State Park, and wouldn’t you know it they had one campsite left. What an incredible jewel this park is, and it lives up to its name EVERYWHERE you turn there is a photo op.

I was just kicking myself for not reserving another night when this huge very loud family pulled in 2 sites down. I love my headphones and music player.

Later I awoke a 3:30 am to a quiet campground and the Milky Way brilliant overhead. I drove off to a secluded dark spot and spent an hour photographing it. Then I checked off another item on my bucket list.

Photos will follow I promise.

Tomorrow it is down the famous scenic Hwy 12.

It’s only 1 pm so it seems a little early to camp, but can I really pass up a sunny, but snowy FREE campsite?

Yes I can and did pass it up, but then everything was already booked when I was finally ready to made a decision, so I wound up in motel. Still it was a good day, and I probably needed a bath anyway.

Traveling was/is always an ordeal, but after picking up my rental SUV I headed out of town. The closer I got to Zion National Park the bigger my grin. It rained all last night but I found that I was relatively comfortable sleeping in the back of the Ford Escape.

In the morning I got up to chilly, but clearing skies, and after a cup of coffee, made on my backpacking stove, I headed to the shuttle bus to take me to the first location. It was real waterfall at Emerald Pools! Because of the early hour there were only a few people there.

For there it was all up hill. Literally and figuratively.

So much for traveling light. Camera gear, camping gear, technology gear, oh my they do weigh a lot.

I am traveling by rental car from the Las Vegas airport to Zion National Park. I have two nights of camping booked there and then I am going to just wing it as I travel across the state from one beautiful park to the next beautiful park .

Wish Bon voyage!