We spent the night in Rock City and headed for Dutch John in the morning.  It was 28 degrees and we went thought about 3 inches of snow in the higher altitudes...me not being a fisherman was not thrilled but was somewhat excited for the experience.  With every piece of warm clothes we could fit on our body we met our guide in Dutch John and headed to the boat. The weather rose to 32 but deep in the gorge we were in the shade most of the day.  We ended up cruising the first 7 miles of the river and fishing the end.  This was because they had raised the water level of the river that week and the fish were not biting on the upper river. There had been a horrific rain and wind storm the day before and the guide said the fish were confused on the upper part...he also said that be thankful we were not there the day before because it was ultra nasty. 32 degrees started to look better. We fished with a bobber and weight also because of this.  A total of 18 miles traveled on the river...Trish caught about 12 and Bob 3...Trish thinks that this may be a great pass time and fished more than taking pictures.  Our guide was wonderful and made us a grilled burger on shore that was excellent .  What a wonderful day and Happy Birthday to Bob and I. Thank you Dave.  

So nice....we want to do more of this...now for the ride back to the car...about 1 1/2 hours and then to the coach.  Thank the Lord for Alpaca sweaters and the Hydra hot furnace in the coach!!

Our time in Park City was well spend.  Diane and I hit every resale/thrift shop in a two hour radius of Park City.  Bought a Ethan Allen dining room table and 4 chairs at Habitat for humanity at the very end...Bob's face when I told him that was priceless...we did manage to pack it in the tow vehicle and one chair in the coach...NO PROBLEM.  
We arrived back at the coach for a quick pick up around 4pm and Bob and Dave were there too for a quick stop and we were all glad we did that because right there in the camp ground was beautiful mother moose and her baby.  She was in perfect health and the evening sun made her fur shine. 

  

Day trip to Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. Absolutely beautiful.  Not many large groups of birds at this season but worth the drive.  The refuge had a very large auto tour that took you to all ends of the area.  

Churches, churches every where churches...Morman. Should have taken more pictures.

Went to this cute ORIGINAL drive-inn, everything back from the 50's still there, including the food....great prices... I think the city was Coalville off 80/84 northeast of SaltLake City.

This is the best picture I could get of the unique squirrel they have up at the rim.  He is gathering pine needles for his nest high in the ponderosa pine he was climbing.  He has a white tail and tuffs of fur on the ends of his ears.  Forgot the proper name of him.

Grand Canyon was beautiful at the very least.  Went to the Ranger talk on Condors...once again they are a very, should we say unique looking bird; with a face only it's mother loves....and the rangers that are striving to protect and breed them.   Quite uneventful and a restful place ...minus the EMT visit etc......never a dull moment for the Lamar's.....We had a peaceful camp site that smelled of pine all day. The following picture was taken at day break from our bathroom window. And the next picture was one of our massive bon fires we built, thanks to Bob and his handy dandy chain saw under the coach.  Move over Bernadette I do not want to melt my jacket!  

Went to the Vermilion Cliffs to look for Condors no success.  A few days before they were sitting on the bridge over the Colorado River.  They fly up to their babies and knock them off...a teaching lesson maybe?

Before we arrived at the Vermilion Cliffs we came upon Cliff Dwellers....not what we expected....basically there were cliffs and people living at the base of them. The following pics are the original dwellers....

This is one of about 20 who live there now.  I wonder what the rope is for ?????  Glad Larry was not around....wish I had more pictures...sorry Larry.

As you drive up to the park you can see 3 of the first mountain peaks.  Their names were Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

The ride into the canyon has to be taken by shuttle only.  All cars are prohibited.  

Because of the intense rain they have been having, in all of Utah, the Zion park, along with many others, were completely closed all day Saturday.  The roads were washed over and flooded.  Mud was every where and creeks were bulging. Bridges washed out in places we were the day before. If you click on the pictures some of the mud is slightly visible on the roads even after they plowed it off with plows. There were all kinds of flash flood warnings for much of the state all week. Right after we made the switch back after the 3rd picture here, we came upon an almost car size rock that had just fallen 15 minutes before onto the road....divine intervention may have played a role in this one....we waited on the side of the road for Bob to finish a phone conversation just before this...thank you Jesus!  No picture to show...I was too stunned to take one...too bad.  The ranger said the rain loosens them up....Yikes....time to view canyons from above.  

There is a tunnel in this park that is 1 mile long.  It runs through the mountain....very small tunnel....and very dark!  At times they close the road and allow bigger vehicles pass in tunnel using both lanes.  The following pictures were taken waiting for the two way traffic to resume.  The ranger at this time pointed out a California Condor flying very high in the sky....ehuwww they are ugly...a vulture type bird. It appears to be unnumbered, so not yet found.  All condors are numbered and tagged with a radio transmitter; as they are raised or found in wild. If you look close at the first picture you can see one of maybe 3 windows in tunnel. The worthy of a picture, food item is from Santa Clara Utah, just North of St. George, Bernadette were riding around and found a step van parked in a cute area with the word waffles on it. It was a homemade donut/cake waffle, with a Dutch biscuit spread, fresh peach sauce and just whipped real cream on it!!!!! OMG very good.   

On the other side of the tunnel, the landscape was very different.  Highway 9 continues through the tunnel and out the park.

Leaving the shuttle and walking to our car we saw a mule deer and her two fawns...very close...about 6 feet away at times.

                      .....and the gang is still all here....off the the North rim of the Grand Canyon and Jacob Lake Arizona.