Camping in Southern Utah

A Report by Megan Young

Starting on April 19, 2007, Dad and I went on a camping trip in southern Utah. We first drove to Brigham City, where we stayed for a few hours while Dad gave a lecture. We then met up with some people who drove with us for several hours all the way to Zions National Park. We found that both camping sites were full, so we found a new spot and slept in a closed parking lot. In the morning, we discovered a fallen down sign forbidding camping and overnight parking. So, that was our first campsite.

The next morning, we went back to Zions, and there were enough places for us. The Virgin River was very close to our campsite, so we went over there and I waded a bit. We saw a Dobson fly larvae. At our campsite in Zions there was a little pocket gopher, Botta’s Pocket Gopher (Thomomys bottae).

We rented a Tandem bike in the afternoon. Unfortunately, it rained, and we were totally soaked when we got back to camp. It was very fun, though. We passed a horse rental place while on our ride. Near the horse rentals was a place called The Lodge, where you could stay if you didn’t want to camp. On our way back, we stopped there for some hot chocolate. We passed a rock formation called “Court of the Patriarchs.” At the end of the trail, there was a rock formation called “Temple of Sinawawa.” The trail was at least twelve miles long. There was also a formation called “The Grotto.”

The next day, we drove out to the desert and looked for lizards. We got hot, and when we couldn’t catch the lizards we saw, we went down to a creek and waded in it. There were tons of tadpoles, and we found two more Dobson larvae. We also saw some raccoon tracks. Afterwards, we finally caught a lizard. It was a young female Desert Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus magister).I held her for a while, and then we let her go.

That night we drove to a hot spring. It was very warm, and we swam around in it for a while. We camped in that area for the night. In the morning we saw a nest of baby ravens. They were very funny looking. We tried predator calling, but didn’t succeed. We started driving back around eleven o’clock. We reached home at three o’clock.

The End