July 8, 2015 - Zion National Park Utah

Zion is incredibly beautiful.  We drove on the parks highway from west to east which has a one mile tunnel.  The RV is too big to just drive through like a car, so we had to pay and extra $15 for an escort through the tunnel.  Actually they just let us drive right down the middle of the tunnel without an escort vehicle in front of us.  Once on the west side, it was amazing.  We drove through some of the most beautiful land that we have ever seen.  There was a very long descent navigating switchback after switchback, down into the canyon.

With the beauty came some additional stresses but then luck!  We drove through a first come first serve campground and as we were leaving (no spots), Steve found the RV's brakes had completely faded away.  We pulled over in the parking lot to assess the situation.  That experience left us shaking due to the fact that we could have crashed and lost our lives if the brakes had faded to nothing just 10 minutes before while on that steep descent.  Looking in the RV owner's manual, we could not find the brake fluid reservoir location.  Steve's cell phone was not working so we could not call the mechanic (Cindy and I still did not have cell phone service yet).  We decided Steve would go into town less than a mile away by bike and get some brake fluid and call the mechanic from there if there was cell coverage, while the kids and I waited.  Steve found some brake fluid, and cell coverage.  The mechanic said the brakes were probably just overheated and then boiled the fluid, and that they would come back in about 45 minutes.  As he rode back to us he stopped at the other campground and there had just been a cancellation, so we got the spot in the already full campground.  So here we were an hour later going down the block to the next campground, and a National Park one to boot.  We were parked very close to the starting point for the shuttle buses that take you into Zion.  You are not allowed to drive up the canyon there.  Everything worked out great.  Our brakes came back and we had a place to stay the night (there was not much of anything even outside the park).
We even got to see a ranger presentation in the campground that evening!

The park road just after entering the park, absolutely amazing!

Again, the view on our drive west through the park, before the 1 mile tunnel.

One of the hikes (or walks).  

going through the canyon

Many people but we got this at a lull (no other people in view).

water flowing down these rocks

One of the hikes.  Cindy and Kathy are in the middle over there, maybe Kevin!

The hike through the canyon

 We like these car sized RV camper thingy's that we started seeing in Arizona.  This one says on it, that it "includes the kitchen sink."  Perfect for flying in somewhere and then tdriving to your destination!