"Abra Kanabra"

It's Saturday evening, we are in Las Vegas in the meantime and I'm trying hard to catch up ... Days could easily have a couple more hours. Back to yesterday, a fantastic day with dark blue skies and no frost in the morning, but a thin layer of snow from last night. After a full breakfast in our hotel in Kanab, we first watched the "Wave Lottery" at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument Visitor Center. Only 20 permits a day are granted for a hike to the Coyote Buttes North (called "the Wave") and it's like a lottery draw with many excited people waiting for the call of their number.

We explored downtown Kanab afterwards. The city is known as "Little Hollywood" since it was a famous shooting location for many westerns. The "Little Hollywood Museum" and the Parry Hotel, where many celebrities stayed, are reminders of these good old times. "Abra Kanabra", by the way, is the slogan of the city and justifiably stands for the magic landscape around town.

On to Best Friends Animal Society, a nationwide animal rescue and advocacy organization with pet adoption and no-kill programs. Headquartered in Kanab, it employs about 400 people and occupies a huge piece of land with sections as "Horse Heaven", "Dog Town", a huge pet cemetery, an animal hospital, etc. Though, we weren't able to join one of the offered free 2-hour-tours, we explored the grounds and visitors centers on our own. Besides pets of all kinds, we met a couple of wild animals there: a family of wild turkey and mule deer (Maultierhirsche).

On to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, a drive of about 25 miles from Kanab. Vast sand dunes with their unique vegetation, similar to the ones we have seen on the Oregon Coast, in Colorado and New Mexico, were such a contrast to all the fantastic rock formations before (pic on the right side)!


Didn't really know what to expect of Zion Mountain Ranch, only about 4 mi. away from the entrance to Zion National Park. Got a property tour: tastefully designed cabins of different sizes, spread out on the grounds and offering great views towards Zion NP.

Also, they own a buffalo herd, a chicken coop, a root cellar and a farm with fields and a greenhouse across the street, where all the veggies/salads/spices are grown for the restaurant. Also, there are horse stables and guests cannot only enjoy healthy, regional gourmet food, but also go for a horseback ride. Wish we would have had a chance to stay here,,,

But, to our full surprise, we met with chef Shon (from Sego) again - he worked on the ranch in the past - and he was the one who prepared our lunch in the ranch's restaurant with homegrown ingredients: a fresh salad, squash soup and, best, a bison tenderloin steak with a spinach-filled mushroom and heirloom potatoes. Getting really spoiled!

Since we were so close to Zion and the weather was so nice, we drove Hwy. 9 through Zion National Park and stopped at a couple of observation points. At this time of the year private traffic is still permitted in the park (otherwise it's only park shuttle busses), but even now, in the off-season, some of the parking lots were already filling up. No wonder, they are thinking about restrictions and reservation systems!


It's been quite a couple of years ago, when we have been here for the last time and weather wasn't really good then. Enjoyed our short hike and the feel how small we human beeings are in such a grandiose landscape! So glad, that we had changed plans, that we got a chance to get to know Kanab and Kane County - a well-worth visiting destination! –, and that we were able to revisit Zion NP!

Despite construction work on the road and minor delays we reached Las Vegas in about two hours. Nice drive through the Virgin Mountains on I-15 in Arizona, to Mesquite/NV, where the vegetation started to change into Mohave Desert, including palms and Joshua Trees. Besides Utah, Colorado and Nevada we have now included Arizona on this trip, too, and, in addition, have only been 10 mi. away from Wyoming in Flaming Gorge. Also, will be in California on Sunday.

Strangely, despite of winning one hour because of time change, it got dark early, shortly after 5 pm and we reached Vegas in the dark. It took us a bit to get into town, traffic jams and slow moving traffic on up to 16 lanes on I-15. Also, though we found the huge parking garage immediately, it took us about half an hour until we were in our room in the Luxor, the fancy pyramid at the end of the Strip. With its over 4,000 rooms it's one of the largest hotels in Vegas (and the U.S.A.).