Spring Break 2007 – Day 6 – Homeward Bound
It’s 309 miles from Calf Creek to Las Vegas, most of them scenic. Everyone is up early this morning. As we settled in last night, it rained hard for ten minutes or so. Now the raindrops are frozen solid. Ice pellets cover the tent.
We have breakfast in Escalante, where the waitress manages to squeeze “ain’t got no” into more sentences than you could believe. She’s nice though and the “Farmhouse Breakfast” is wolfed down.
At a nearby table three ranchers are chewing the fat. One of them pulls out a fresh-looking pair of light-tan work gloves.
“What in the hell are those?” the large one with no neck guffaws.
“Genuine doe skin,” the rancher replies. “Cost me fifteen dollars.”
“You coulda bought yourself three pairs for that!”
The third grey-haired gent gets in on the action: “I think that deer is gonna want its skin back.”
“Well, it ain’t gettin' it.”
On and on it goes, the same spiel heard the world over.
After breakfast, the miles fall easily. We climb to Bryce Canyon National Park and then head down to Zion N.P. We stop at a sandwich shop in Springdale where Christy and Hannah race through the adjacent apple orchard. After that it's just a long, hot haul into Vegas.
We splurge for a room at the Monte Carlo resort -- mostly for the wavepool and water park. I join Sydney and Hannah in the lazy river float. Poolside is an incredible people-watching opportunity, and after the long days in the wind and space of Southern Utah, it feels strange and foreign – but fun.
Calf Creek Sunrise.
Frozen raindrops on the tent fly.
Breakfast in Escalante.
Sydney, riding shotgun and fronting hard.
Red Canyon, just west of Bryce National Park.
Red Canyon.
Checkerboard Mesa, Zion National Park.
The view from the tunnel windows as we head through the steep descent of the Zion National Park tunnel.
Hannah gets her ya-ya's out.
The view from the Monte Carlo, a strange and fiery reentry from the wilds of Utah.
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