trip to Utah

A couple of years ago Bobby went on a tour of a number of national parks in the Western part of the United States. He wanted to return to Zion National Park, and we did this at the end of July. This was my first time in Utah. I now know why he wanted to return to Zion. I must confess my ignorance of how beautiful it is in Utah. I had no idea prior to this trip.

There will now be a series of photos from the trip. The scenery is so spectacular, it can't be captured in a photo. You really have to see it to believe it.

I was also really impressed with the operation of Zion National Park. Everything was clean, all of the rangers and employees were exceedingly nice, and the entire park was well-run. Given the overall condition of the US government, I wasn't expecting this, and was pleasantly surprised. I'm now a big fan of our national parks. I'm glad to support our national parks through my income taxes.

I'd also note that Americans comprised only about one-third of the visitors to the park. The other two-thirds were Western Europeans taking advantage of the weak US dollar. There were lots of people from France, Britain, and Germany. This caused me to wonder how all of these Europeans know about Zion when I've lived here my whole life and didn't know much about it prior to this trip. Unfortunately, many Americans think that the only good vacations are at a beach or at Disney World.