[You may view a map of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in PDF format and a map of Zion National Park in PDF format.]

We got up around our usual time and I had my normal breakfast. We went out to photograph the cascades on Calf Creek right in the campground around 8:45.

We wore our gum boots so we could stand in the middle of the creek to photograph, and we had a ball. I enjoyed it much more than the Lower Calf Creek Falls yesterday, mainly because it was calm and there was no spray in my face when I was trying to photograph. After a while, the canyon wall started to provide a nice warm reflection upstream of the main cascades, and I was able to capture one of my favorite images of the morning (far left). Then I returned to photographing the cascades in a more intimate manner, and ended up zeroing in on a few cottonwood leaves caught under the water (near left).
I returned to the RV around 11:15 and downloaded the images I took while prepping the RV to move. We took on a little fresh water before leaving the campground incase we decided to boondock one more night tonight. We got underway around noon and headed south on UT-12.

I had Clif Bars for lunch while driving.

We stopped in Escalante to make some phone calls with good reception, then continued south on UT-12 around 12:45.

I got a real kick out of a sign for the Thunderbird restaurant in Mount Carmel that said it was the "Home of the Ho-Made Pie."

We entered Zion National Park through the East Entrance at 3:20 and purchased a permit to take the RV through the tunnel. RVs and busses have to drive down the center of the two-lane road in order to have enough clearance in the rounded tunnel, and have to pay for the privilege of having the rangers stop opposing traffic to clear the tunnel so RVs and busses have the tunnel all to themselves.

We reached the South Campground, which is actually north of the Watchman Campground — go figure — around 4:00. I dumped and filled up our fresh water tank while J checked the Watchman Campground to see if there was a last-minute cancellation there. There wasn't, so we were stuck at the South Campground which means we wouldn't have electric hookups like we had been looking forward to. Both campgrounds are down in a narrow, deep, valley, so we won't be getting much solar-electric power. Then J scouted the South Campground for a good side, and got special dispensation from the camp hosts to occupy a handicapped spot because that would provide the best opportunity to get solar-electric power out of the few available open sites. The site was oriented so that we could tilt the solar-electric panels to maximize our power in the morning through early afternoon, so I tilted the panels. J was already online through the fast Broadband Access signal when I came in, and I quickly went online too. It was so nice to have a fast connection again! We decided to stay in the RV and relax a bit this afternoon/evening. I started to work up a blog entry and uploaded the images that were selected from my last stock submission.

We had dinner around 6:40 of leftover Pineapple Sweet And Sour Chicken over rice for me and a bowl of tomato soup for J.

I finished the blog entry then did some computer work and downselected the images I took this morning.