Zions National Park 2002

Zion's 2002             Page 2 -->
I think we figured out this is our 6th trip to Zion's over the past 9 years or so. This year turned out to be a bit colder than previous years. We headed out on Halloween night at around 8 pm. The Rudd's joined us, as Joan's parents were down from Canada visiting some relatives in St. George. The goal was to push through to Barstow, but a cold started in the back of my throat while driving and we ended up pulling off the road in Tehachipi and staying at a local motel. Friday morning we joined the Rudd's for breakfast in the local joint. I bet Ben Rudd (14) $5 that he couldn't finish his short stack of humongous pancakes, I didn't pay up. We piled in our cars and headed off for the park.

Robyn and Steve, my sister and brother in law, and their four kids were driving up from their home in Cottonwood and meeting us there. Shari Zollinger and Jen Nuttal were driving down from Salt Lake, the Penrod's couldn't join us this year since they had just opened their new bakery in Payson. Robyn and Steve beat us into the Watchman Campground by about 5 minutes, and we ran into Shari and Jen.

We ended up getting the exact same camping spot as last year.

Steve and Robyn's trailer is in the back right of our tent. This became the envy of my wife.

As noted the temperature was colder this year than in the past. We camped out three nights, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday felt around 30 degrees Fahrenheit, Saturday was by far the coldest, getting down around 25, and Sunday night warmed up a little to around 35 degrees. I was fine in my mummy bag, which I just cinched over my head. Stacey has a claustrophobic thing and doesn't like sleeping bags, so she slept under blankets. Even with our Coleman tent heater,

it was pretty dad gummed cold in the tent. Piled on top of this my cold and Stacey's asthma, we were a little bit uncomfortable. But hey that's camping, its not like your staying at the Hyatt. During the day when the sun was out things were very comfortable though.

The Rudd's set up camp right next to us, but they spent quite a bit of time with Joan's folks and I don't even have one picture of them, just their tents.

The kids rode their bike's all around the camp, here is Ryan on his bike, which he crashed on at least 7 times.

Sofi and Abby were great friends palling around, although here Abby is crying because I wanted to take her picture.

Steve and Sam hanging out before we took of for a hike on Saturday.

The fire was essential to keeping warm, here Kiah and a glum Sofi, gather round.

Jen and Shari keeping warm.