Day 15 | August 27th

Today we knew we had a long drive back to Las Vegas....160 miles and we also wanted to have a good look at Zion National Park. So, we set the alarm for a 7am wake up so we could have an early breakfast and be on our way.

We drove back into the park as far as we could, which was only a few miles and from there you had to take the free shuttle buses up into the valley. We got the shuttle at the canyon junction and took it all the way to the end stopping on the way in and out at various stops. The scenery was truly amazing and majestic. The towering sandstone mountains and winding river through the canyon changed around every corner and was just beautiful.

Ashleigh played in the river for a while, digging up the sand and throwing it back into the river. She was in heaven!

At one stop we had to walk up a very steep, but short pathway to the Weeping Rock. It was a large rock overhang that was 'weeping' water like a constant rainfall. It was very damp and lots of ferns were growing along the rock face and around the area. Another beautiful sight.

On the walk up to Weeping Rock we also saw a deer resting in the trees. It was very relaxed and didn't move at all considering all the tourists that were walking up and down the path and looking at it.

We were so glad we made the time to have a good look as it was like nothing we had ever seen before.

Once we got back to the Canyon Junction we jumped in our scalding hot car and headed back to Las Vegas.

We didn't stop many times along the way but I did have to make a bathroom stop around lunch time and the only place to stop was McDonalds, which was quite ironic given earlier in the day I had commented about how happy I was that we hadn't been to any McDonalds or other fast food outlets.

Our first destination when we arrived back in Las Vegas around 3pm was The Gun Store so Scott could have a go at the indoor shooting range. He chose to shoot three guns, a Glook 9mm, AK47 and 223 Snipper. The wait was a very long two hours and it was all over in less than 15 minutes but Scott said it was definitely worth it.

After that we headed to our hotel, New York, New York and checked in for the night. It was about 5.30pm and we found out straight away that the pool closed at the crazy hour of 7pm so we quickly dropped the bags in our room, Ashleigh got changed and we were down to the pool. Scott and I had a much needed beer after a long and very, hot day.

We had dinner in one of the many hotel restaurants, Chin Chin which was a Chinese and Japanese mix. Very nice after many days of American food. Then we did some packing and reorganizing of bags for the flight to Hawaii in the morning and it was off to bed ready for another early morning.