We were expecting to run into cold weather at some point on this road trip, but not so soon! We drove up to Utah from Nevada to explore some of the amazing national parks that this state is famous for, and after only a few days we find ourselves fleeing south again!

Zion National Park is a place that's been on our list since some friends back in Banff showed us photos of the spectacular rugged trails climbing Angels Landing. This dramatic steep-walled canyon has provided shelter, food and water for people for thousands of years. Eventually, persecuted Mormon farmers from the north east settled here, naming the place Zion, which appropriately refers to a place of heavenly refuge or 'promised land'. It was too bad the whole time we were there it poured with rain!

It was kind of nice to finally see some rain, and the inner canyon ecosystem seemed to be loving it after a long dry summer. This was the first rain we'd seen since we left Canada six weeks ago! It meant we couldn't do as much hiking as we had hoped, but we dug our wet weather gear out from the depths of our van and did our best to explore the inner canyon anyway. The wet weather added to the brilliance of the gushing waterfalls and glistening groundwater seeping through the sandstone of the canyon walls, and we hiked up into the canyon until we couldn't go any further without a boat!

Still, wet weather isn't that fun. Especially when it gets dark at 5pm and you're sleeping in the back of a car. In the end we only lasted two nights. The drive out of the canyon along the Zion- Mt Carmel Highway was wet but still extremely scenic. It took us straight through the canyon walls via a historic tunnel, built in the late 1920s with the help of good old fashion dynamite!

As we drove east towards Monument Valley, we hoped it would get better. It didn't. In fact it got colder, and the rain turned to snow. A lot of snow! We were planning on camping in the Indian reservation in Monument Valley itself, but by the time we pulled up in the nearby town of Goulding it was so miserable that we decided to fork out the cash for a room in Goulding's Lodge.

The whole town was run by the indigenous Navajo people, who were very friendly and hospitable. The history of the lodge turned out to be a great story too. Harry and Leone Goulding settled here in the early 1920s after falling in love with the surrounding desert, its people and the amazing rock formations that characterise the place. They sustained themselves by trading food and supplies for jewelry and silver with the local Navajos at their trading post. To bring financial relief to the area after hardships caused by the Great Depression the Gouldings collected their last pennies and headed of to LA to convince a Hollywood producer to bring out a film crew. Eventually, John Ford came, and brought with him John Wayne and a good chunk of the old Cowboy and Indian film culture. It is still a popular film setting today.

There have definitely been negative effects on the traditional Navajo way of life, but Hollywood has also brought wealth, an inspired generation of local artists and education to the region. The Navajo's culture and art are now among the most well preserved and self-governing of all the native American people.

It was incredible to see this strangely familiar desert landscape covered in a good layer of white snow, but it meant the dirt roads and trails were way too messy to navigate for a good close up view of the sandstone monuments. We settled with the visitor centre and art galleries. Occasionally the fog would drift away and from the visitor centre we could appreciate the fascinating sandstone pillars and mesas that feature in this valley. The cold didn't drift however, and realising that the storm was here to stay and that camping still wasn't really an option, we took off south.

We thought we'd get some warmer weather in Arizona, but we've just passed through the National Park gate towards the south rim of the Grand Canyon, and apparently they've had eight inches of snow in the last 24 hours!