We drove from St. George towards  Zions National Park and then on to Moab.  Both of these places are absolutely majestic. We followed the Virgin River up through tiny towns with rustic lodges, cabins and local shops until we "reached our destination". That's what Trixie always tells us in her little British accent. It's actually very comforting to hear after a long day in the car. The downside is if we alter the course, even to get off to fill up with gas, her voice goes from comforting to annoying. She just keeps repeating the phrase "turn around, turn around" to the point we end up shouting "shut it Trixie, shut it".  Who's the fool here? Trixie or the 2WestwardHos? Don't answer that.

Zion is Utah's oldest national park and is also the most visited. It's no wonder because its colors are spectacular and canyons beautiful. There are hundreds of hiking possibilities not only for regular people like us but for hard-core back country hikers as well. We listened as a ranger gave a permit to a guy who wanted to hike and camp in the canyon. She was very meticulous in getting all the correct information and having him sign on the dotted line. I guess they need all that info in case he got eaten by a bear. We later learned that these guys typically climb up a canyon as far as they can before dark,  attach a metal bed to the side of the mountain and then tuck themselves in so tight they can't move. If you have allergies, I suggest you take a Zyrtec because one sneeze will land you sprawled at the bottom of a canyon. If I were one of these extreme hikers, I think getting eaten by a bear would be a more noble way to die than to be posthumously referred to as "Poor Sneezey".  

Moab is home of Arches National Park and is a couple hours north of Zions along the Colorado River. It's another example of Mother Nature making sculptures out of a 15 million year old landscape. It's a place that will awaken your imagination with all its brightly colored rock formations. It was one of the more interesting drives we had in all the parks. We found ourselves giving names to the various formations we saw along the drive.  And although some of the rocks were already named, we thought we came up with better ones.  However, the ranger didn't tell us the park was open to suggestions. On the other hand, he also didn't say anything about us going into the visitor's center and scratching out the existing names on the postcards and putting in our own. I'm putting Lisa on that task. Hopefully she'll finish before I"m ready to go.  

There are 5 National Parks in the state of Utah alone. The Mormons trekked through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Colorado just to find this paradise. I'm starting to feel remorseful about what I said earlier about them ruining Sundays for us non-Mormons because they closed all the good restaurants. Now that we've been through a lot of the state, there's probably a good reason. Sunday may be the only day a polygamist can gather all his wives and kin to go out and enjoy one of these wonderful parks. I really feel bad now. So bad that when I get home I'm going to borrow Lisa's "Best of the Osmonds" album and listen to it all day Sunday.