National Park Reflections

Sorry I can't post a picture of sunshine and blue skies, but I can't because it's still raining here.  Not a good way to kick off the Memorial weekend camping season!

All seven of the national parks we visited were different from each other, even though all had the common theme of rock formations.  Our favorite park of the seven was Zion.  Is that because it was the first park we visited?  Is it because we had five days there?  Is it because we went on several walks there and pretty much explored all that we were capable of exploring?  I don't know.  All of those things could have biased us.  Generally, the more time we spend in a park, the more we like it.

Because of logistics, we were only able to spend a day at Bryce, Capitol Reef, Mesa Verde, and each part of Canyonlands.  Our time at the Grand Canyon was cut short because of Dave's problem with the altitude.  We both had a hard time walking there because of the thin air. 

Mesa Verde was the highest altitude park we visited, yet we were able to climb in and out of the cliff dwellings.  We were determined to do that, but it pretty much wiped us out for the rest of the day.  We didn't go on any walks at Bryce, but we got in and out of the car many times and walked to the overlooks.  That was tiring because Bryce, also, was at a high altitude.  Zion was the smallest of the parks that we visited, which gave it a more intimate feeling and gave us a sense of "knowing" the park.  The trees at Zion were in bloom and the greenery against the rocks gave it a special look that most of the other parks didn't have.

The Grand Canyon had the worst signs, especially directing us to Trailer Village.  Mesa Verde had the best signs.  The signs at Zion were also excellent.  Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, and Mesa Verde were the only parks where food was available in the park.  Grand Canyon was the only park where we were able to camp inside the park and have full hookups, cell service, and satellite reception. 

Zion and Grand Canyon both had excellent shuttle services which we took advantage of.   The Grand Canyon was the park that surprised me the most, because I didn't know there were so many trees there!  The trees never show up in anyone's pictures.  Also, the magnitude of the Grand Canyon just can't be experienced except in person. 

My final picture of wildflowers at Capitol Reef National Park. 

Capitol Reef had the best wildflowers, maybe because it was the last park we visited so it was later in the season.  Since we went on a long walk there it was easy to take pictures of the flowers.  Notice the dry soil in all the wildflower pictures.  I wish we could send them some of our rain!