Day 22 - Sunday, Oct 15 - San Diego to St. George, UT
Starting mileage: 5259 Starting time: 10:00 am
Ending mileage: 5707 Ending time: 6:30 pm
Travel mileage: 448 Travel time: 8:30 hours (lost an hour going to Mountain time)
Today was mostly a traveling day, getting close to the entrance of Zion park. It is pretty much all desert and rocky mountains all the way from San Diego to St. George.
At the border of California and Nevada, we passed the Ivanpah solar power facility which uses over 300,000 mirrors to focus the sun on towers to generate steam which then runs a turbine generating electricity. It is quite impressive to see, with part of the tower shining very brightly and a haze around the towers - if you click the link, you can see the photos and a description of its mixed success. Unrelated to this are several very large photovoltaic power facilities as Nevada is trying to foster alternative energy production.
Although the terrain was generally similar as we approached the Nevada - Arizona border, there were signs of water having a greater impact with deep gorges from water flow, probably not recently. I-15 passes through the mountains following the Virgin River Gorge. While the river is now just a small stream, it must have been quite powerful at one time to create a gorge over 1000' deep. Unfortunately, (my) photos just can't show the grandeur of the gorge.
We stopped for the night at a Comfort Suites in St. George, UT, the largest city in south-western Utah and the gateway to Zion NP. When I used the "app" to make the reservation, I was surprised that there had been no reviews of the hotel. It turned out that the hotel just opened yesterday and we are the first people to be staying in our room. The desk clerk had just been hired as well so the check-in process was a bit slow. But it is very nice.
We had a very nice sushi and sashimi dinner at the Sakura Japanese restaurant just a few hundred feet from our hotel.
Ending mileage: 5707 Ending time: 6:30 pm
Travel mileage: 448 Travel time: 8:30 hours (lost an hour going to Mountain time)
Today was mostly a traveling day, getting close to the entrance of Zion park. It is pretty much all desert and rocky mountains all the way from San Diego to St. George.
At the border of California and Nevada, we passed the Ivanpah solar power facility which uses over 300,000 mirrors to focus the sun on towers to generate steam which then runs a turbine generating electricity. It is quite impressive to see, with part of the tower shining very brightly and a haze around the towers - if you click the link, you can see the photos and a description of its mixed success. Unrelated to this are several very large photovoltaic power facilities as Nevada is trying to foster alternative energy production.
Although the terrain was generally similar as we approached the Nevada - Arizona border, there were signs of water having a greater impact with deep gorges from water flow, probably not recently. I-15 passes through the mountains following the Virgin River Gorge. While the river is now just a small stream, it must have been quite powerful at one time to create a gorge over 1000' deep. Unfortunately, (my) photos just can't show the grandeur of the gorge.
We stopped for the night at a Comfort Suites in St. George, UT, the largest city in south-western Utah and the gateway to Zion NP. When I used the "app" to make the reservation, I was surprised that there had been no reviews of the hotel. It turned out that the hotel just opened yesterday and we are the first people to be staying in our room. The desk clerk had just been hired as well so the check-in process was a bit slow. But it is very nice.
We had a very nice sushi and sashimi dinner at the Sakura Japanese restaurant just a few hundred feet from our hotel.
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| Virgin River Gorge |
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