Our morning drive through Capitol Reef National Park revealed the heritage orchards of the lush, historical Fruita District and the mystical Ancient Fremont petroglyphs carved into the canyon cliffs. We didn't stay for long as we still had a way to go, but I stopped over at the Gifford Homestead to check out some artefacts from the pioneer Mormon days. They had a lovely gift shop selling artisan pies and I bought the Forest Berry pie! After driving through hundr...

We woke up late again - I guess it must be the change in time zones as we are an hour ahead here in Utah. We have become really good at packing up the tent quickly and moving on, although, it is quite tiring. We had a quick breakfast and then drove on to Sunrise Point to start our hike through to the Queen's Garden. This hike has been labelled as "easy" by the National Parks information centre but it was a pretty tough terrain. The descent was steep and slippery...

We woke up late - 7am! Had to get ready, pack the tent and drive to the Visitor's Centre by 8:45am, which we managed to do with 15minutes to spare. Our ranger Mike Large and driver Russ picked us up. Ironically, Mike Large is very small in stature but very much larger than life in personality! He reminds me of the actor Danny Devito. Ranger Mike Large has lived and worked in Zion for 28 years and is quite the character. In the 1860's, small farms along the river...

We were both so glad to be leaving Las Vegas. Especially, after I got lost and we ended up driving through the sad Downtown with its delapidated, cheesy chapels, sleazy sex shops and queues of hopefuls (or hopeless) outside the pawn shops. There's definitely a dark side to the city of lights. We were lucky enough to snag one of the last remaining campsites at the National Park - it was definitely a full house that night! First things first - go to the Visitor's...

What a day today! I slept very badly as was woken up at 1AM by heavy rain falling on our tent and then, later, by footsteps outside and around our campsite. Fortunately, we were neighbours with a Polish family that had driven all the way from New Jersey in their 4x4 to the Southwest and were exploring the off-road trails. They were very well equipped and they let us borrow their stove when our cheapo Walmart special stopped functioning so we could make some much ...