April 26 – May 13, 2024

Our last day in Zion would be a simple one, that is we would get on our bikes and ride up the canyon to the end.  We took off in the late morning and rode into the park, a gradual climb of about 500 feet that was easy to manage.  Few, if any cars, are allowed on the road and the only vehicles one needs to contend with are the shuttle buses mentioned in our last post. 

The only downside of the ride was the need to pull over when a shuttle bus approached from the rear, normally not much of an issue except some of the buses were electric and thus one can’t hear them.  I got honked and yelled at by one of them for not pulling over when I had no clue they were behind me.  So, I was much more careful the rest of the ride. 

We hit the end of the canyon and turned around for the easy ride back to the Visitor Center, enjoying a brief section of path off the road so that we didn’t have to interact with the shuttle buses.  We completed our journey in the canyon by stopping at the retail center inside the park for a sandwich and coffee at Perks before climbing back on the bikes and riding down to the southern edge of Springdale before turning around and climbing back up to the cabin.  

We dawdled at the cabin the rest of the afternoon before heading across the street for dinner at the popular Spotted Dog restaurant.  We started off with cocktails, for me the Old Fashioned (Rendezvous Rye Whiskey, muddled orange and Luxardo maraschino, local bitters) and for Joanna a Floradora (Jackrabbit Gin, Fresh lime, and raspberry liqueur topped with fine ginger beer) to go along with the Caeser salad we split. 

For entrees Joanna enjoyed the Rocky Mountain Red Trout (grilled trout fillet finished with a lemon zest clarified butter with wild rice, and seasonal vegetables) while I tore through my Chicken Mornay (succulent hormone free airline chicken breast, traditional gruyere cheese béchamel with roasted fingerling potatoes and seasonal vegetables).  This was not a cheap date though and with the drinks and the salad, with tip our tab came to $154.

We spent another quiet evening in the cabin sipping on an adult beverage apiece before heading to bed for another restless night’s sleep.  The next morning, we broke camp in a timely fashion as although we had a short four-hour drive to Meadview to spend a night with my 90-plus year-old Uncle Dick (my dad’s brother) and his wife Aggie, we wanted to take a detour through the Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. 

We stopped in for breakfast at the south end of town at MeMe’s Café where along with a cup apiece of coffee, Joanna struggled to eat all of her Very Berry Crêpe (mixed berry compote, house made sweet cream, powdered sugar, and whipped cream) while I did my best with my usual Veggie Omelet (sautéed fresh vegetables, cheddar) with country potatoes, toast.  It was all good and reasonably priced, out tab coming to $34, particularly reasonable considering we were in what could be described as a tourist town. 

From there we drove south to the I15 towards Las Vegas for not quite two hours before turning off at the junction with the city of Moapa and thirty minutes later entered the park.  Here we hit a wall of confusion as an entry fee is required and almost everyone besides us couldn’t get the ticket machine to accept credit cards.  We finally managed a successful purchase and drove into the park.  This State Park which covers nearly 46,000 acres derives its name from red Aztec Sandstone formations, which formed from shifting sand dunes 150 million years ago.  These features, which are the centerpiece of the park’s attractions, often appear to be on fire when reflecting the sun’s rays.

I’d been here once before when JB, Evan, and I joined Doug for his nephew Danny’s wedding.  It’s a beautiful setting for a ceremony like that and we all enjoyed the event.  We drove to the visitor center and spent some time there getting up to speed about the park, and pushed on towards Meadview, not feeling the need to stop inside the park as to enjoy many of the sights, one has to walk to them, which was out of the question for me. 

We eventually landed in Meadview and spent an enjoyable evening with Uncle Dick and Aunt Aggie, eating dinner at a local sandwich shop (there are a lot of options in this very small community) and took off the next morning for journey down to Flagstaff for the next two nights, landing at Judy’s Place.  It’s located just off the historic center of the downtown. 

There would be not remote check in as Judy herself wanted to greet us and show us around her place, a nice touch.  We found that we share much in common and if would have been staying longer I think we could have connected with her for a social evening.  The house itself was a charming older building, with the uneven flooring that one finds in houses close to 100-years old. 

For dinner we returned to a favorite from our last visit to Flagstaff, Beaver Street Brewery, located on the street of the same name about a half mile from the house.  Our return visit would not be nearly as satisfying as the one before.  Not bad mind you, just off in small ways.  We ordered beers and a bowl of Charro Negro soup.  From here on our service would get sketchy, having to wait unreasonable lengths of time to get our food. 

I think the problem was that it appeared that much of the wait staff were students at nearby Northern Arizona University and a career in restaurants was not on their long term to do list.  The soup came with corn bread and was actually much more than we needed, but we did our best to power through it as we waited, and waited, and waited, for our Three Sausage Pizza (Marinara, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Romano and mozzarella cheeses, an assortment of smoked sausages, mushrooms, caramelized onions, and parsley) to arrive. 

I finally had to get up from the table and flag down our original waiter to ask him if we could get our pizza, which then arrived not long after.  It was good, but not as good as we remembered, which was disappointing.  Was our first visit that much better, or did we just romanticize it?  It’s impossible to tell.  For me though, the highlight was the glass of Big Rapid Red, a high gravity version of their Railhead Red. 

We ordered a piece of Apple Ginger Stout cake to take back to the house for later and closed out our tab at $74 including Tip.  We had one full day for sightseeing left to us and at first it appeared to be challenge as we’ve visited here so many times.  But we managed to stay busy, and we’ll cover that in the next post. 

Links

Perks: https://utahcoffee.com/

Spotted Dog: https://flanigans.com/dine/

MeMe’s Café: https://memescafezion.com/

Valley of Fire: https://parks.nv.gov/parks/valley-of-fire

Judy’s Place: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/25053788?source_impression_id=p3_1726001310_P3VrILK04EcAAobq

Beaver Street Brewery: https://beaverstreetbrewery.com/