While we were able to find some snow finally in Mammoth, we were ready for a change in scenery. We decided to head south, through Las Vegas, out to the desert in Southern Utah. We spent one cozy night in Las Vegas, in a hotel, with a warm shower. It was nice to get a good night of sleep and explore the tourist attraction that is Las Vegas. One night was enough for us, so we decided to get back into our comfort zone, on the road, to Zion National Park. We camped at the mouth of the park, and woke up to beautiful red rocks rising up on both sides of our campground.
Zion National Park was beautiful. We even took the camper through a mile long tunnel! We drove through, not able to hike in the park because of the dogs, and headed toward Kanab, UT. We explored Grand Staircase Escalante, and finally felt the red sand between our toes. The dogs adapted to the warm weather by digging holes down to the cold sand. Stuart finally admitted that he should have brought his Chacos on our winter adventure. But, who could have anticipated we would have been taking on such a dramatic temperature change!
Deciding to embrace the momentum we had, we headed east towards Bears Ears. The drive was incredible, taking us through the Navajo Indian Reservation, up steep cliffs, and into the Bears Ears National Monument. With the snowy road in the high desert, the mud was treacherous. Even though we couldn't make it to the top of Bears Ears, we camped with an amazing view as far up as we could go. I finally felt like we were embracing the camping lifestyle. Little did we know, that night we were basking in the glow of the supermoon, in the most quiet place I'd ever been. Some of the best places we have gone have been on roads we don't see another car for hours. Bears Ears was one of those places. The appreciation I felt in that moment for where we were was overwhelming. I was sad to move on. The desert treated us well but we were ready to keep moving.
