According to Apple maps it was going to take 5 hours to drive to Zion Mountain Ranch. Even though we had TV screens for the boys to watch, Harry was not happy! This was likely to be one of the worst days ever judging by how much he was talking about it.
Anyway, when faced with a long drive the best thing to do is get up and get on with it. At least it was going to be freeway most of the way which is better than getting stuck behind caravans on the A38 into Devon or the A whatever to Norfolk – although they probably don’t even have A roads there!
We left our hotel and got onto the freeway at which point the sat nav said we had to stay on this road for about the next 240 miles! It took us about 50 miles to get past what seemed like the urban sprawl of Salt Lake City – the downtown maybe be small but the ‘burbs are not! As the movies ticked by in the back of the car, so did the miles. After a brief pitstop mid morning we pulled off the freeway about 220 miles later in Cedar City. This town had been a possibility for staying in a hotel, fortunately we had found something else because there wasn’t a lot going on here. There was a Walmart however so we stocked up on beer, wine, croissants and crisps before setting off on the final leg of the journey to Zion National Park.
After another 40 or so miles we reached the Park entrance. We paid our fees to get us into all National Parks for a year and drove through Zion Canyon towards our hotel, which was just outside the other Park entrance. The canyon was quite stunning. Beautiful red rocks, covered in amazing glacial carvings and patterns from the water and wind over thousands of years. It took quite a few photo stops to make our way through it and with some very dark tunnels and sheer drops by the side of the road – Tracy did get the willies a few times!
Once out the other side of the canyon we drove another few miles before arriving at our destination – almost 6 hours after we set off – a truly dreadful day for Harry! As we pulled into the entrance of our ranch we saw the buffalo herd along with horses, rabbits, chickens and ducks – it was quite a little farmyard.
We collected our keys and drove round to our lodge, complete with its own Granny/naughty boy annex. The lodge was beautiful and the boys were very excited about having their own lodge to stay in. With everything unpacked it was time to chill on the verandah looking out for miles across the wilderness of Utah.
As we sat in our rocking chairs Tracy was visited on a fairly regular basis by a hummingbird. It obviously liked her red top because it kept coming to see her and it flew incredibly close to her. Despite its numerous visits the best photo I could manage was this – which isn’t the best photo I’ve ever taken!
After a bath in the very big bath it was time to walk down to the Buffalo Grill and have dinner. It was a lovely setting to enjoy dinner of ginormous rib-eye steaks. The horses and rabbits kept running past our window and in the background the buffalo came running over for their dinner. With stomachs well and truly stuffed it was time to visit the shop and buy a cuddly horse and buffalo! Summer holiday spending money was well and truly being spent.
Then after a walk back to our lodge the boys retired to their lodge while Tracy and I sat outside watching the dark night skies come and the stars appear. With no artificial lights for as far as the eye could see it was a pretty good star watching night although they weren’t quite brith enough for Tracy’s liking.
And with that it was time for bed. Well almost. Tracy wasn’t happy about the boys being in a lodge by themselves so off I went out of our lodge over to theirs to see if they would come back to ours and sleep upstairs in the room with six beds! Toby wanted to stay in their lodge but Harry was more than happy to come back to ours – I think he had the heebee-jeebees! So eventually, at about 10:30pm we were all tucked up in bed and ready for a day in the Park tomorrow.