Yesterday, Wednesday, we drove a long way from near Death Valley to Virgin, Utah.  Several of us got lost in Las Vegas due to bad advice from a tour guide who said we could avoid construction by doing it his way, but signs he said to follow did not exist.  We finally got back onto I-15 north.  It was a strenuous mountain road drive much of the way, with a lot of cross winds but also some beautiful scenery as we neared and passed through the Virgin River Gorge.  The following photos were taken by Betty as we drove through the Virgin River Gorge.

The following photos were taken at the visitors center at Valley of Fire State Park.

Rocks off the parking lot at Visitors Center in Valley of Fire

Fruit-bearing cactus at Valley of Fire

Typical row of red rocks at Valley of Fire

One stop along the way was actually a diversion to Valley of Fire State Park.  It was the idea of our tour management and not something that the GPS or we would have included.  This is a large area with red rocks similar to those in Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.  It is interesting enough, but the road leading into the park clearly was not designed for large motorhomes towing cars behind them.  It was slow going and as we neared the park itself, there were some very tight rolling turns that even car drivers would find memorable.  Everyone just snapped a couple phone photos and moved on.  It was $10 per vehicle.

We apparently were the most cautious drivers, since our 55 mph pace through the cross winds and mountain roads rendered us last to arrive at the RV park.  We also stopped off-road for a rest break, since these western states have few if any rest areas along the interstate highways.

Toward the end of the journey, we decided to get diesel fuel at the Flying J truck stop that was heartily recommended by the tour leader.  It was advice contrary to one of our first trip lessons learned, but after our tight squeeze experience in Kingman, Arizona, we thought a truck stop might be a good choice.  Wrong.  It was the truck stop from hell.  Very heavy rude traffic going in; a very busy, crowded, and filthy truck stop once inside; and after waiting for a line to open up to access a fuel pump, I had to prepay inside before pumping.  The location of the office was uncertain, since the place was spread over several acres, but I found it inside a Burger King that was built into other buildings.  Once we paid a high price for fuel and snaked our way quite a distance around big rigs to find the exit, we gingerly sought a gentle entry back onto the road.  Wrong again.  The curb was badly deformed (likely by poorly driving big rigs) and our motorhome rocked violently even though we were traveling at 5 mph.  Things flew around inside and some damage was done.  A clock fell off the wall in the bedroom and cracked the housing, storage cabinet contents flipped and some came out, molding around the slide-outs cracked, etc.  At first the slide-out for the bedroom would not slide out once we reached the RV park, but eventually it did deploy.  It is now Thursday morning and we are still doing some cleanup.

Since we had already seen Zion park in a past Tauck tour, we decided to relax while here rather than make the early morning mad run into the park.  So many foreigners are crowding into our parks that Americans have to scramble to find a place.  Thankfully we can take this time to do some housekeeping chores, do some shopping, and relax.  Another first, the power went out at the RV park this morning but is now back on.  The reason I even knew was that the AC stopped and it was getting hot in here.  The power inverter kept everything else going.  Several people on this tour are from Florida and looking for a cooler place for the summer; not found it so far.  And allergies are a continuing problem, likely due to all the dust blowing.  We drove through a town nearby named Hurricane.  Driving through you see how it got its name:  the winds.  And the winds blow up dirt and other debris.  Our sinuses are really backed up this morning.  That is also aggravated by constantly changing altitudes that cause your ears to clog and pop.  So, RVing in the west is hard on RVs and hard on you.

Our short pull-through slot at Virgin River RV Resort

Entering Utah also put us back on Mountain Time, so we "lost" an hour.  Crossing these time zones back and forth is a strange and annoying (though artificial) experience.

On the way home from shopping today, we pulled over to the side of the road to shoot a panorama of the rock formations that present themselves to the driver passing through this area.

Near 360 degree panorama of SR 9 leading to Zion River RV Resort

Here the portion to the left of the photo above is enlarged