Zion National Park

Today we drove to Zion National Park.  They do things a little differently here at Zion, because of big crowds and lack of parking the only way to explore the park is to get a ride on their shuttle bus.  Due to Covid, they are running their buses at 1/3 capacity, so a lot fewer people can get in the park than normal.  Sadly for us, although we have camping reservations, we were not able to get shuttle reservations so we are not going to be able to really see the park.  No hiking the narrows for us I guess.  It is incredibly hot here though, like 114* hot!  We arrived in the park and got to drive though the really cool tunnels to get to our campsite. 

 It took us a while to get set up because it was so incredibly hot and sunny we had to take lots of breaks so we wouldn't get heat stroke. 

 Once we were finally set up, we sent the kids to wade in the nearby river while the grownups went into town and got some badly needed showers.  The campsite didn't have showers, but a local business had paid showers and dad was kind enough to buy us 5 min to wash off.  It felt so good after a week of no bathing!  After showers we grabbed some ice cream then went back to camp to cook dinner because we had guests coming! 

 A friend from when we lived in Ohio Jared Harlan lives right near where we were staying and he and his girlfriends drove up to see us.  Jared and his brothers were some of the first kids I ever babysat!  It was cool to see him all grown up.  The last time we saw him and his family was about 10 years ago.  Jared is a talented musician, and he gave us a little concert after dinner. 

 Once our guests had to head on home, we all went back to the river for a while to cool off.  It was a nice day.