It was 5:30 am when I woke up On Saturday, the day after I played in the Senior’s Event. There wasn’t any reason to hang around, so I headed northeast from Vegas on Interstate 15 towards Utah and Zion and Bryce National Parks. I had a campsite reserved at Panguitch Lake campground in Dixie National Forest for tonight (Saturday) and Sunday. Panguitch Lake campground is a little north and between Zion and Bryce. Panguitch Lake is at a higher elevation than Zion and Bryce, so would be cooler and more comfortable. My plan was to get to Panguitch Lake later in the afternoon, set up camp, relax, explore Zion on Sunday, and Bryce on Monday. Because I left Vegas so early, I got to Zion pretty early in the day. The road leading into Zion was just packed. I was a little concerned that I might not get into the park. After a while, I did get in it, and Zion is just beautiful, but I decided not to fight the crowd. I will visit Zion in the future in the off-season.
I drove east through Zion, exited the park, and drove a few miles on highway 9 to Mount Carmel Junction, Utah, where I headed north on highway 89. About an hour north is Panguitch. A few miles before Panguitch is highway 12 east, which takes you into Bryce National Park. On this drive, I could see smoke coming from the hills west of Panguitch Lake. This turned out to be the beginning of the “Brian Head” fire which became pretty big, moved east, and one week later, burned the Panguitch Lake area. Brian Head is a ski area popular with skiers who live in Vegas. Anyway, I took highway 12 east through Bryce. Bryce is another beautiful National Park. I stopped at three scenic overlooks, walked to the edge and snapped photos.
It was 3:30 pm. Although I saw just a fraction of Zion and Bryce, it was in the mid-90s, the parks were crowded, and I plan to return to these parks, so decided to forget about camping at Panguitch Lake. I headed towards home. Highway 12 heads east out of Bryce, to the town of Tropic, then the town of Escalante, then north to the town of Torrey. This drive is incredibly beautiful. Months later, when looking at one of those internet, Best Drive in Every State lists, I saw that it is someones opinion that this drive is the most beautiful drive in Utah. In Torrey, I turned due east on highway 24 which cuts straight across Capital Reef National Park, another gorgeous drive. About halfway through the park is Fruita which is like an oasis. There is a little campground there that I will visit with a small trailer someday in the future.
At this point, the only plan I had was to head towards Milwaukee, and get a motel when I got too tired to drive. I continued on 24 north towards Interstate 70 which would take me east across Utah and Colorado, and back to Sterling, Colorado. After driving east on 70 into Colorado, it had been a long day, so I started looking for a place to sleep. It was midnight when I exited 70 at the Glenwood Springs rest area. This is a large, popular, very nice rest area. It felt safe, so I shut my eyes. When I opened my eyes again, it was 5 am, so I started driving east and didn’t stop except for gas, coffee, and snacks until I was back home in Glendale, Wisconsin, a suburb north of Milwaukee. I just checked on Google maps, and Glenwood Springs to Glendale is supposed to be 17 and a half hours. I don’t remember what time I got home. My trip odometer showed that from Las Vegas to Glendale, WI was 1880 miles. Google confirms this. Driving 1880 miles with 5 hours of sleep wasn’t a smart thing to do, but I just didn’t want to stop, get a motel, and get up to face another day of driving.
An amazing thing about this trip is that it covered 9 days, 4500 miles, I think 8 national parks, and I never saw one drop of rain, not even on my windshield.