April 17, 2014 Escalante, Utah

Bye Bye Zion.

To get out of Zion to the east you have to go through the tunnel that was built in 1930. It is too small for big rigs and tour buses  to travel in one lane. They have it set up so that they stop the traffic on one direction and let the big boys though. It cost $15.00. You have to unhook the car. I was driving behind the bus and got this photo. The tunnel has these really cool observation windows cut in the side so you can look into the canyon from above. This photo is by one of the windows. Checkerboard mesa on the way out from the bus.

Leaving Zion. The roads in Zion are red, they are colored with red lava stone that they quarry by the park. So the road goes back to gray as soon as you leave.  Usually cars are passing us since John drives at 55 mph, we get much better gas mileage at 55. This white car was only going 35 down the road. We are passing though Red Canyon state park, which is just west of Bryce National Park.

We did not drive into Bryce this trip. It is at 8,000 feet and still too cold. This is a small preview of what the hoo doos in the park look like, as we drive by. The bus at the  Canyons of Escalante RV park in Escalante. It is the only RV park in town. Nice for a commercial park. Plugging in to give the batteries a good recharge and do laundry.

Strolling around town we found this chalk board people are writing on. My favorite was ‘All the years combine, they melt into a dream’ Also ‘The pump don’t work  cause the vandals took the handles’. Escalante from in front of the RV park. We had dinner at the Circle D- the adobe building next door. The town is surrounded by some of the most beautiful red rock, but you can’t tell from here.

50% of the towns historic buildings are still standing. I had a little pamphlet for a walking tour. The top cabin was  built out of town in 1890, but moved into town and reassembled by the Escalante lions club in 1990. The bottom one was built in 1884 and was the LDS Tithing office. It is Greek Revival style. It later served as the  High School until 1938.

In the laundry room three young Germans asked me to help them with the machines, they did not know how to work them. I also had to help them buy the soap. I told them they were lucky not to have had to use a laundry mat before. They said they have laundry mats in Germany, but they are different. They were were in the US for 3 weeks, doing a whirl wind tour of the west.