Day 9 Utah to Wyoming

After three amazing nights at Zion Ponderosa Ranch and two full days at Zion National Park it was time to move on. It was 45 degrees at 630 when the alarm went off and the team was not ready to leave. They knew what was ahead. A night of camping. I mean only one night before we head back to the comfort of indoor sleeping but I had to drag them tooth and nail out. I knew this was going to be a long day of driving so at the free 730 breakfast I loaded up on a little bit of everything. I was not really hungry till around to 5pm when I ate so victory was mine on that part.

Today will be a different type of recap. Not a lot of fancy stops and more of me just musing on what ended up being about 10 hours on the road, I think I started at 830 and finished setting up my tent around 730. A long day.

First thing I have learned. Do not drink soda. For some reason I decided to drink soda and today I had to use the bathroom more than when I was hiking all day.

Leaving Zion I did see another pheasant. They really are cool looking. I also was following a group bikers north for a ways and I found it really cool how members would point out roadkill just to make the others look and pay attention and case they were not.

I did get to see the birthplace of Butch Cassidy. That was very cool. I had no idea it was out there but right along the side of the road there it was. Of course I stopped and checked it out.

The difference between southern Utah and northern Utah is like night and day. The amount of people in the Salt Lake City region must be very high. I don’t have internet access as I type this. But if I remember I will look it up when I post this tomorrow night. If I have internet access then lol

The point is southern Utah is so rural and small town while the north has this major megalopolis.

The Seven Peaks area of Utah near Provo is absolutely breathtaking. The peaks just dominate the right side of your drive north. They are amazing. I don’t have words and I could not take pictures because I was on a major interstate. But wow.

Random note as I moved into Wyoming, but this goes for areas in Utah and Colorado as well. People seem to buy land and put just a trailer on it out here, and I mean lots of land. Must be great deals.

Afton, Wy is a cute town that obviously survives or dies off of tourism. I ate dinner there at Hegg’s Grill and Steakhouse. The Steakhouse part is only open on Fridays and Saturdays apparently. I ate at the diner counter on the other side. The service was good. A local, a very elderly lady, who had apparently forgotten she was suppose to meet someone at the bowling alley at 1 across the street was chatting away but was all over the place.

I had the California burger, basic burger stuff plus avocado. It was good and yummy. Looked like a fresh made patty. It came with potato salad that was not so good. In fact, it was still frozen. So, all in all a 3.5 star meal I guess.

I shall note here twice as I drove north through Wyoming, I saw signs for farm made Ice Cream. I was intrigued but missed them BOTH TIMEs. So mad.

From listening to chatter, seeing the ridiculous amount of NRA, and Freedom isn’t free stuff in the gas stations, as well as every other place was called Freedom something or other, it is very obvious how conservative Wyoming is. This I find funny and slightly Ironic. Why? Because conservatives hate government regulations the government meddling etc. BUT Wyoming I would bet, it’s biggest source of revenue are the two giant National Parks created by government regulation I will be visiting. Just a thought.

After Afton I hit for the first time the Snake River. Oh my gawd. Wow. Just what a majestic twisting river. The pictures do not do it justice.

The KOA was well a mixed bag. It is nestled in the corner of mountains and the Snake River. Its in an awesome place but the online pictures are def not what I was expecting.  After a small change in my campsite from a group site to site more alone I ended up in a great spot across from the showers. I hate having to walk far and right along Horse Creek that feeds into the Snake River. I will let those pictures speak for themselves and that will be my day.