We love southern Utah-- the adventure continues

When we left Yellowstone, we checked out the Tetons (which we loved, and we hope to spend a season there in the future), we swam in the Great Salt Lake, then we headed to southern Utah.  Our plan was to spend a week visiting the parks in that area. Instead we had a six week stopover. There are so many beautiful parks and the weather was great, so we decided to try to find some work and stay a while. We had good internet and our timing was perfect! We pulled into a campground outside of Zion National Park on Sunday evening, applied for a job on Monday night, and started work on Tuesday evening!

The restaurant has been described as "cowboy hipster" and was heated by wood stoves

     We were hired as servers at a guest ranch about 2 miles outside of Zion National Park.  Now keep in mind that we haven't served food in more than 30 years, but some of the servers had left to return to college, two others were leaving soon, and they didn't have anyone else coming for few weeks. So they were desperate enough to give us a try.  The restaurant is a unique and interesting place.  Under-staffed and needing some tender loving care, but full of potential. They have a great farm to table concept, and grow much of their own produce in organic gardens and orchards. We served so many wonderful guests from all over the world. They shared our love of the area and we enjoyed discussing our favorite parks and trails with them when we had time.
    We didn't just serve food  and/or work as host. The ranch had beautiful flowers beds that needed our attention dead heading flowers and pulling weeds. We helped to harvest squash, pumpkins and tomatoes from the gardens, and pears, plums and apples from the orchards. One day the owner was joking with me about doing something with the apples, so one morning I brought a basket of apples into the restaurant kitchen and prepared a sample of my apple crisp. Everyone thought it was good, including the owner. So several times a week, I went in and baked an apple crisp, or an apple plum crisp, that served about 15 people. The chef was pretty laid back about his kitchen and never minded when I showed up. Mark and I enjoyed offering my apple crisp to our guests for dessert. Homemade and fresh from the oven, it was usually not hard to sell!
   The ranch has a herd of ornery bison that kept getting out, horses to ride and goats and mini horses for the guests to pet. There are chickens that wander around the flower beds and walkways all around the outside of the building. I would count them as we walked by on our way home after work each night.

We did a great trail ride on ranch property. We really felt like cowboys riding on switchbacks in the wild west.

  On our days off we hiked!!

View from the canyon overlook trail

 We loved Zion National Park, even though it was very crowded.

One of our favorite trails was "Many Pools" where the pools filled up with water after the rain. The reflections were beautiful and there weren't any crowds!

Angel's Landing is one of the most famous trails in Zion. People come from all over the world to hike it. It is only 2 1/2 miles long each way, but the last 1/2 mile is very steep and narrow, with drop-offs on both sides.

The upper part of the trail has chains to hold along the cliffs.

Part of the trail was designed by giants! (or so it seemed to me)

The view from the top is beautiful!

Thea Narrows is another iconic hike at Zion. We rented water boots, neoprene socks and hiking sticks to help us navigate the chilly water. We hiked in and out of the river for about 5 hours enjoying the rock walls and scenery of 'Wall Street".

Each turn of the river held a different view.

We had an amazing day at a nearby slot canyon. We took a jeep ride through the deep sand to see "Peek-a-Boo" slot canyon. There was almost no one else there besides for our small group. A special thank-you to Kate, one of our restaurant guests, who offered to let us tag-a-long on one of her tours. It was a special day!

Eureka!  We finally found big horn sheep rams. We actually found a whole herd one morning in Zion and got to spend about an hour observing them!

Bryce National Park was a surprise for me. I loved hiking down in the "hoodoos"!

We also went to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

The dunes were huge and we got our toes in the sand.

We hiked to see dinosaur footprints!

    We enjoyed the North Kaibab trail at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon!  Bright Angel Point Trail was beautiful also.

Cedar Breaks National Monument was a great surprise! It was like a smaller version of Bryce, but not as crowded. The park was at a much higher altitude, and the ancient bristlecone pine trees were beautiful.



Next on to Branson, Missouri to visit with family, and see if we can find a job for a month.