I recently went on a trip to the desert southwest with my mom and sister.  They are from Maryland and I am in Florida, so we all flew to Las Vegas and met up there.  My plan was to show my mom as much of the southwest as I could in a week.  We spent a night in Las Vegas and lost some money in the slots before heading to Utah.

While in Utah we visited Zion National Park, Grand Canyon National Park (North Rim), Bryce Canyon National Park, Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.  It was a whirlwind tour!

The scenery is stunning.  This was my first time in the area in the fall and I loved the colors.  There were a lot of golds.  We also saw a lot of Mule Deer.  You must be careful driving anytime but they are more on the move in the early morning and late evening.

While in Zion National Park, I saw a large bird, much larger than an Eagle.  I learned that there are California Condors in the area.  We spoke with a Utah state employee who had a station set up to help hunters save condors.  He said the condors fly from Zion to the Grand Canyon and there was a nesting pair in Zion, although the chicks didn’t make it.  He provides non-lead ammunition to hunters. If they use lead shot, then he requests they bring the guts to him for proper disposal.  The condors get poisoned if they eat the remains of an animal killed with lead shot.

I  prefer to visit the area in a motor home and spend more time hiking or sitting still, but we were trying to get a sampling of the southwest and only had a week to do it.    It was a lot of driving but worth it.

We spent the last night in Las Vegas on the strip and it was a big contrast between the wide open, sparsely populated spaces in Utah with the congestion in Las Vegas.  We had a great hotel room and enjoyed the food.  My sister was the only one who came out ahead after visiting the casino.  At least one of us did okay!

Dart was my best friend when I got home.  Regis said he was happy that his “toy” came back.