last day, which is just as well, since this czomputer is getting funky and keeps wzanting to put z's in everything. here azre a few more pix of zionz. and a pic of nancy blogging by the fire. and, here's her blog:

thurs.10/27 We are still at the Zion campground this morning. Jack is making pancakes, bacon and coffee in the camper, I'm sitting out here in the lap of the towering red rock cliffs. The sun has been up for a couple of hours technically, but has yet to peak over them. It seems like Fall may have arrived this morning; most of the other campgrounders have hats and fleece. The river is right over there (see, I'm pointing) which is why we chose this particular site; we hear its music all night.
The trade-off for the spectacular scenery is what happens first thing in the morning. If a certain professional photographer needs to take a picture in the glorious, dramatic early morning light, we need to dis-assemble the whole house and my slumber, and head up the road. At these times I admire people who are towing a separate trailer behind the car so that one person can go in the car,leaving the groggy one in peace.
Our camper being without bathroom is worst in the morning, when you need to stagger through a campground of waking (or worse yet, awake, chipper and friendly) fellow campgrounders to get to the communal bathroom. That's one reason we prefer non-campgrounds and the great outdoors. This morning once I finally made it to the campground's bathroom, I had to share the one, cold-water only sink with a European woman the size and build of a side by side refrigerator. It felt like my eyes were at the level of her butt, which scared me out of the place and back to our campsite for teeth brushing and face washing. We later saw her van which had printed on the side: "Helga Von Out FunHavin".
Zion is gorgeous. I kind of grew up in Yosemite, which will always be dear to me especially since my granddad was a ranger there for ever and ever, but this place is creating its own place in my heart. Yosemite is silvery-black-white granite, Zion is pinky-red-gold sandstone, and they are both stupendous. Cliffs higher than New York skyscrapers, straight up hundreds of feet. Rock-climbers are tiny specs on this huge vertical expanse.
Same day, night time now.We left Zion today, realizing we need to head home. Home? Except for being without Cookie, we feel like we've been home everywhere we've gone. Every place, we were sad to leave and felt rushed to get on with things. Well, except for maybe the restaurant in Shelter Cove where at dinner the musician wanted us to join in a sing-along during Puff the Magic Dragon. That, I could have lived without except for thinking "can't wait to put that in the blog". Oh shoot, Jack just shot a picture of me, and he always does that when I'm in Fashion Fauz-Pas Mode, this time complete with headlamp, kind of dirty hair mushed up by headlamp elastic, layers of crumpled clothes! People, you need to know, I am not the dork it appears I am in Jack's pictures. Well, maybe I am, but I'm happy so there.
We are in the middle of who-knows-where, Utah. On BLM (Bureau of Land Management, a Federal agency) land, you can camp legally, and no one really wants to due to lack of water, electricity, paved roads, bathrooms, and picnic tables. This is where we're happiest, especially in Utah since the views and settings can be breattaking. Perhaps if the world population keeps growing like it is, someday this place, remote and desolate, will be a national park with all services and lots of people. In the meantime, it's just us and the tracks and poop of coyotes and antelope, among the classic Western canyons and mesas, layered in yellow, green, chocolate, purple, red, orange, white and black. My desk and chair is rocks, as you can see from the photo. I am Wilma Flinstone with a Dell computer. Today my walk of a couple of hours sent me to no people, but amazing geology, views, and natural mysteries. I almost don't want to know more about the science of how rocks are formed, because it might get in the way of the wonder I have for it now. In Utah, you can see geology happening in your face. Erosion and physics is melted in to your brain, and you dream in fire and ice, dinosaurs, earthquakes and storms. Everything happens on a grand scale, as well as in minature. I love seeing huge cliffs towering above the grasses and rivers in almost grotesque formation or every shape, texture and contortion, and the same thing in the side of a rock that is a few inches total. Air pockets, hardness and softness, color, hot and cold - this happens everywhere in Utah in a place the size of your foot and in a place the size of a state.
Where we are now is part of the Escalante National Monument. Within it is the "Grand Staircase" - and the names Vermilion Cliffs, White Cliffs, Red Cliffs, Pink Cliffs. We think we may be on the second cliff. I can't tell what color it is but I've certainly seen lots of colors here. Navajo Mountain is straight ahead of us and Boulder Mountain is somewhere out there as well. The Monument is huge and largely roadless, and suits us just fine. Jack has a huge fire going, the night is warm enough to still be outside, the stars will soon be out, and we wish we had a week or a lifetime here. From our little campsite, we could walk miles in any direction and find no one. Since it's October, I probably won't die of either thirst or heat stroke. Carefully watching the ground for rattlesnakes and cacti is normal anytime and comes stress-free. this fire smells very pinon like, which makes me think of home, of our friends waiting there, of our kitty, of all the fun things we like to do there. so i am looking forward to home.