USA Fam Trip Day 2: 15th November 2015

Good morning Las Vegas! My body clock had me awake at silly o'clock this morning but what a view to wake up to - I sat up in the biggest, comfiest bed I've ever slept in and across the valley I could see hot air balloons taking off on their sunrise flights...

I really didn't want to get up and could have quite happily sat for ages watching The Strip come to life from my "deluxe panoramic king" room but there was work to be done and many miles ahead.

We checked out and went on a site inspection of the Wynn and the sister property Encore next door before enjoying an amazing breakfast. I kid you not, these hotels are like small towns, they're so huge and have populations not workforces - well, with 2,716 rooms to look after you'd need an army lol Unfortunately we didn't have much time as we needed to be on the road pretty quickly as not only did we have a long day ahead, but it was the Las Vegas marathon and they were closing the roads, but we did have time for our first team photo of the trip...

So we left the bright lights, tall buildings and pavement escalators (!?) behind and followed the I15, through Mesquite and across the stateline into Arizona and on over another stateline and into Utah; driving through such places as St George, La Verkin and Hurricane. The mountains began to surround us as we followed the north fork of the Virgin River towards Springdale and the Zion National Park...

The 229 square mile Zion National Park is divided into 2 main areas: Zion Canyon and Kolob Canyon. An oasis of colour in this wild wilderness area, summer temperatures can reach way over 100F but it remains high season. I'm so glad we are here at the end of the season, less cars and people and a real feeling of remoteness. Here's the mind-blowing bit.. it's taken 13 million years for the north fork of the Virgin River to carve it's way through the plateau and create the Zion Canyon and each winter the walls grow further apart, as the water that seeps through the sandstone freezes and shears off huge chunks. There's never been much of a population but archaeologists believe the first settlers came around 500AD but were driven out by drought by 1250AD. Isaac Behunin set up a log cabin in 1862 on the site of the Zion Lodge as a refuge but it wasn't until 1872 that the area became known for it's scenery after John Wesley Powell's expedition and it was finally awarded National Park status in 1919.

We had a short site inspection after checking into our lodge rooms before taking the park shuttle bus to the Temple of Sinawava and then walked about a mile up a beautiful wandering path until we came to the beginning of "The Narrows" where you hike up the the river through the canyon. As the light was beginning to fade we made our way back to the bus stop, passing some majestic deer and beautiful autumn foliage...

Our rustic lodge style rooms were lovely and warm with little balcony areas complete with wooden rocking chairs and of course the stunning backdrop...

Dinner was in the Red Rock Grill - homely food in huge portions and as we headed back to our rooms the snow began to fall.