Hoover Dam and Zion National Park... & Las Vegas (Kinda)
So this post combines the best of a National Park, a giant slab of cement wedged into a canyon and a city with a wicked bad traffic problem... among other things. First stop after leaving the 120 degree Arizona was at Las Vegas, Nevada and while neither Michelle nor myself felt a need to stop we did decide that if we were so close we may as well drive through, and it turns out that was all we needed. Next we headed towards the Hoover Dam, an incredible feat of engineering holding back the expanses of Lake Mead. Seeing tours were at a premium and we were crunched for time we moved swiftly through the attraction. After driving over, we walked across as well (much to Michelle's liking) and visited the handful of small museums and attractions before heading on to Utah!
So you may notice in the days/week to come that Utah is split into 2 parts and that is because the places we want to visit are on the far west and the far east, so we will be detouring into Arizona in between for a break from The Beehive State (seriously have not seen one beehive the entire time...). So in our first endeavor through Utah we stopped at Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park (Bryce NP post to follow). So how about Zion, it was beautiful, breathtaking and spectacular all in one but naturally I will share a slight downfall about the park, and that is much like Yosemite it is kind of a city disguised as a National Park which takes away from some of the magic. You had to wait in a 2-3 hour line to get on a city bus to be shuttled around to attraction, not even a tour bus, you could still see the Los Angeles City Transport faded beneath the Zion logo. With that however, this was more or less our fault, and should be expected when attending one of the most famous National Parks on a Saturday in July, and please do not take this as complaining because Zion was spectacular and just a glimpse of what else Utah has to offer!