Zion, Vegas, San Carlos

It's been a great week, other than the worrisome car problems that seem to have sorted themselves out. Oh yeh! The A/C compressor seized up after working well for about 30 minutes. We can do without it.

We spent a wonderful day in Zion National Park. We camped at an RV campground in Sprindale, just outside the main entrance to the park.




Springdale main drag.
Cars are not allowed in the park unless you have a reservation at the only hotel in the park. There is a free shuttle bus that runs into the park. The next morning we chose to bicycle into park, about 10K to the trailhead for the Angels Landing hike. This hike is rated as very difficult. It is quite steep and falling form some section of the trail would mean certain death but the risky parts are aided by chains fastened to the rock.




The climb goes up this ridge and the peak is 1400 ft above the valley floor.




View of the Virgin River valley in Zion NP from Angels Landing
From Zion we drove into Vegas to cheer on Jenny and her friend, Nicole who had entered the "Warrior Dash", a 5k obstacle race. What a hoot! 3000 plus people competed in this event, with 500 crazies starting heats starting every 30 minutes. Jen and Niki's heat started at noon. By noon the temperature was approaching 30C and there is no shade in the desert.




The "before" shot...




The "fire jumping" shot... Zoom in, that's Jen and Niki jumping the fire.




The "finishing line" shot




Two happy chicas...
Linda and I had planned to continue south after watching the race but we changed our mind, drove back to Circus - Circus, camped at the associated KOL campground and went out for a celebration dinner with the athletes. After too many margaritas and a big meal, we left the girls to enjoy their evening and staggered back to the campground.
We didnt get an early start the next day but it was mostly and interstate drive through Pheonix and Tucson. We finally stopped for the night about 40k north of the border. Early today we crossed into Nogales and drove about 425k into Mexico.
Once across the border it is quickly evident that one is no longer in the USA. Linda and I commented how comfortable we felt to be in Mexico. We had expected to cross the borde and almost immediately be on the highway. But this wasn't the case. We drove over the border right into the heart of Nogales. Luckily we has some experience exiting Mexico at the this border crossing so we found our way the immigration offices, etc.
We are currently camped on the eastern shore of the Gulf of California in San Carlos. The campground is pretty empty but it is still early in the tourist season.




Tomorrow we are continuing south. If we get an early start we might push through to Mazatlan.
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Location:Mexico