- Joined
- Feb 28, 2003
- Messages
- 3,591
- Reaction score
- 0
To bypass my long story and just look at the pics click on this link
Virgin River campground and Utah hikes pictures from hiking & backpacking photos on webshots There is a slide show link you can click on for easier viewing
OK folks these are pics from my vacation last week. I had this extra week that I needed to take because I cancelled a week in August. I waited so long to take it that last week was the only one available.
I looked in a few books trying to decide where I wanted to go camping and picked the Virgin River Campground. It was supposed to be a beautiful area with some good hiking. The odd thing about this place is you have to drive out of Arizona and then back into Arizona to reach it. The only road into this area is from Nevada or Utah. This following is a small map so you can see what I am talking about.
One of the reasons I picked this place was it was only supposed to be about 1900 elevation turned out to be 2200. With the weather turning cold I was trying to be careful where I camped. The books also didn't mention the winds up here. In this area there are a number of road signs warning about crosswinds.
Of course not only did the weather turn colder the just before my vacation but I got sick for the first time in almost 4 years the week before my vacation. I was originally going to leave on Sunday but I changed it to Monday and then finally to Tuesday to give myself time to recover from my cold.
I drove thru Wickenburg then to Kingman then on to the Hoover Dam. You have to stop at Hoover dam but I guess none of us looked like terrorists because they waved us all thru. From here I had to drive to Las Vegas then head northwest like I'm going to Utah.
In one 30 mile stretch you can go from Nevada to Arizona and then Utah. Right before I got there you drive thru a beautiful gorge then unfortunately I didn't get any pics of.
When I found the camp I was a little disappointed that it was so close to the highway but when I got inside the surrounding mountains more than made up for it. It needed to pick a campsite and there were some sites right on the edge of the campground that over looked the Virgin river but it was real windy. I asked someone else who was camped on the edge and they told me that the wind had really beaten their tent the night before but it was still standing.
I decided I would be better putting up my tent in the middle of the campground and I still had a heck of a time putting the rainfly on with all the wind. My sleeping bag is rated at 0 degrees so I stayed warm enough at night. I woke up Wednesday morning and hiked closed to the camp around the Virgin River as much as I could. Even though it was a beautiful area there wasn't much hiking I could do so drove into Utah and then to Snowy Canyon State Park.
Wow, it was gorgeous. I went on two connecting hikes but didn't finish the second one because with all the mountains it gets dark early. Thursday I decided to go to Zion National park. I really wanted to go here in the fall or spring but I decided to go anyway. It was 20 degrees when I showed up so I decided to drive the 2 main highways that go thru the park until it warmed up a little bit. Since it was off season for the park you could drive your own car at your own pace instead of being stuck on a park shuttle bus.
I wish I could have spent more than one day here because there was so much to look at. I pulled of the road and took pics until noon and then went on a 3 hour hike. There was probably better hikes to take pics of but this was supposed to be a good hike to take in the winter so I took it.
I headed back to camp and noticed again right at the Utah Arizona border that the Utah cops have a field day pulling over speeders. In the few days I was here I must of seen close to 30 vehicles pulled over in this small area. My last night in camp was the best one there was no wind and the sun setting that evening left me be breath taking views.
I wish more of my pics would have turned out but this was a brand new camera and I had to shoot all the pics thru a LCD view finder because there was no optical viewfinder which I have always used
Virgin River campground and Utah hikes pictures from hiking & backpacking photos on webshots There is a slide show link you can click on for easier viewing
OK folks these are pics from my vacation last week. I had this extra week that I needed to take because I cancelled a week in August. I waited so long to take it that last week was the only one available.
I looked in a few books trying to decide where I wanted to go camping and picked the Virgin River Campground. It was supposed to be a beautiful area with some good hiking. The odd thing about this place is you have to drive out of Arizona and then back into Arizona to reach it. The only road into this area is from Nevada or Utah. This following is a small map so you can see what I am talking about.
One of the reasons I picked this place was it was only supposed to be about 1900 elevation turned out to be 2200. With the weather turning cold I was trying to be careful where I camped. The books also didn't mention the winds up here. In this area there are a number of road signs warning about crosswinds.
Of course not only did the weather turn colder the just before my vacation but I got sick for the first time in almost 4 years the week before my vacation. I was originally going to leave on Sunday but I changed it to Monday and then finally to Tuesday to give myself time to recover from my cold.
I drove thru Wickenburg then to Kingman then on to the Hoover Dam. You have to stop at Hoover dam but I guess none of us looked like terrorists because they waved us all thru. From here I had to drive to Las Vegas then head northwest like I'm going to Utah.
In one 30 mile stretch you can go from Nevada to Arizona and then Utah. Right before I got there you drive thru a beautiful gorge then unfortunately I didn't get any pics of.
When I found the camp I was a little disappointed that it was so close to the highway but when I got inside the surrounding mountains more than made up for it. It needed to pick a campsite and there were some sites right on the edge of the campground that over looked the Virgin river but it was real windy. I asked someone else who was camped on the edge and they told me that the wind had really beaten their tent the night before but it was still standing.
I decided I would be better putting up my tent in the middle of the campground and I still had a heck of a time putting the rainfly on with all the wind. My sleeping bag is rated at 0 degrees so I stayed warm enough at night. I woke up Wednesday morning and hiked closed to the camp around the Virgin River as much as I could. Even though it was a beautiful area there wasn't much hiking I could do so drove into Utah and then to Snowy Canyon State Park.
Wow, it was gorgeous. I went on two connecting hikes but didn't finish the second one because with all the mountains it gets dark early. Thursday I decided to go to Zion National park. I really wanted to go here in the fall or spring but I decided to go anyway. It was 20 degrees when I showed up so I decided to drive the 2 main highways that go thru the park until it warmed up a little bit. Since it was off season for the park you could drive your own car at your own pace instead of being stuck on a park shuttle bus.
I wish I could have spent more than one day here because there was so much to look at. I pulled of the road and took pics until noon and then went on a 3 hour hike. There was probably better hikes to take pics of but this was supposed to be a good hike to take in the winter so I took it.
I headed back to camp and noticed again right at the Utah Arizona border that the Utah cops have a field day pulling over speeders. In the few days I was here I must of seen close to 30 vehicles pulled over in this small area. My last night in camp was the best one there was no wind and the sun setting that evening left me be breath taking views.
I wish more of my pics would have turned out but this was a brand new camera and I had to shoot all the pics thru a LCD view finder because there was no optical viewfinder which I have always used