We left the desert state of Nevada and reached the Mormon state of Utah, where we immediately visited a Mormon temple in St. George.
Mormon Temple St. George
We were greeted by a friendly German who was currently serving as a missionary in the USA.
Our journey then took us to Zion National Park, which has been established since 1919 and is the oldest national park in Utah. We left our car at the entrance and instead used the free shuttle bus that took us to all the important viewpoints.
Zion National Park
In Zion NP, we were able to observe wildlife, which, however, avoided the wilderness and instead ate on the well-watered lawn of the hotel in the national park.
As we continued on our way, we experienced a very interesting replacement for a traffic light system at a tunnel: Since two large vehicles could not pass each other through the tunnel, there was a lookout on each side who relayed via radio when a larger vehicle approached. If several vehicles then drove through the tunnel, the last car received a 'baton' which it had to hand over on the other side to show that it was the last to pass. That would eliminate two jobs with one traffic light... Dixie National Forest The next national park we visited was Bryce Canyon with its impressive red and eroded rock formations. Right at the beginning of the drive, we encountered some elk deer grazing peacefully at the side of the road as cars passed by. Of course, everyone drove past very slowly - not only out of consideration, but also for a photo. We took a short hike on the 'Bristlecone Loop Trail', where we could see seemingly dead bristlecone pines in the bizarre landscape. On the 'Navajo Loop' hiking trail, we could see rock formations that were intended to resemble personalities such as Queen Victoria.Natural Bridge At a viewpoint, there was a small photo session with a squirrel that was unfortunately very fast. After what felt like 100 photos, it finally looked into the camera.
