Western Trip Day 1: What a Nightmare!

I left for my 18 day or so road trip around Utah, Colorado and New Mexico in great spirits. My itinerary is exciting and varied. But I hit a major snag within one hour of leaving. For those who live in Southern California, you know it was the two accidents on the I-15, one at Devore, one at Hesperia, that closed the freeway until 2 p.m. The weather in the mountains was awful. I decided to try to go around the south accident by driving to Crestline, but holy crap! the fog was really thick. However, eventually I got on these really nice mountain roads only to find when I hit the 15 that it still was closed. So I did another detour around to Phelan, a town I'd never heard of, to get to Victorville. All told it took me 3.5 hours to go from Long Beach to Victorville, a trip that should normally take about 2. Oy!

By the way, west of the freeway near Phelan are these amazing rock formations called Mormon Rocks. There's a campsite there. It's quite lovely. And really, the good thing about the very long detour was that I got to see parts of the mountains that I'd never seen before.

But I needed to get to Zion at a decent hour, so at Victorville are started booking it. I've driven this route many times before, and I've never seen the freeway so empty. I felt like I had it all to myself. I really didn't hit any traffic until I was in Vegas. The rest stop, by the way, 24 miles east of Baker has been reopened. I took a nap there, believe it or not. The rest stop has been renovated and is actually quite nice considering that it's a rest stop.

My original plan was to stop in Vegas for an hour for lunch, and then stop at this dinosaur museum in St. George, but I decided to just book it to Zion. Along the way, I stopped in Mesquite, Nevada, which is a cute little casino/retirement town. It looked very orderly. Also, as you're driving out of Arizona and into Utah, you drive through the Virgin River Gorge, which is fantastic, but unfortunately there was no place to stop to take a picture. I guess there's a recreation area in there somewhere, but if you ever have a chance to drive this route, I recommend it.

I'm now in Springdale, which is just outside Zion. It's quaint, as one would expect, and I have to give props to my friend Jeanne who recommended the Desert Pearl Inn. It's amazing! The scenery here is pretty great, and I went to a small restaurant called Whiptail and had some yummy spaghetti squash enchiladas. On the way back to the Inn, I watched bats flying around eating. I feel like I'm finally here! I can't wait to explore Zion tomorrow.