Day 14 – Page to Springdale, UT

Ok, I need to stay more nights at the same spot. The constant packing and unpacking is a little nerve wrecking. Fortunately, Springdale will be our last one night stop before Phoenix.

Originally, we planned to visit Monument Valley this morning, but we all feel that we have had enough days in the car and now want to spend more time outside. The first miles I felt like Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day" because Melanie and I have been driving the road to Wahweap (a marina and hotel on the shores of Lake Powell) for I don't know how many times…

Passed through Kanab again (no, we did not stop at McDonald's) and arrived in Zion before noon. The drive from the East down the steep slopes is a sight to remember. And for the first time I got to drive one of the more exciting roads (for some funny reason, Melanie was always at the wheel when we hit such passages). Yeah.

After we had lunch (which took the cook forever to prepare…) Mel and I didn't feel like hiking along sandstone again so we rented some tubes to tube down Virgin River. – let me tell you, this puts your Gluteus Maximus at risk if you don't watch for rocks… I know what I am talking about. I mean it goes alright when you're floating feet first but once you start spinning this becomes a whole different game. And the river didn't have a lot of water. But we managed to survive (and Melanie beat me by a mile).

To fill the gap between tubing and dinner, we decided to take a bus into the park and hike for a while. Honestly: We did that and I remember some of the unbelievably high cliffs (the trailheads are all at the bottom of the valley so unlike other canyons you start to get a feel for this one from the bottom perspective), but I just felt a wee bit too tired to treasure this experience.

Dinner at the Spotted Dog Café was outstanding. Tomorrow we'll hit Las Vegas (maybe this was the reason why we were trying to preserve some energy).