Utah, the Beehive State. It took me a while to figure out that the strange logo on highway signs is, I assume, a beehive.

Utah has quite a diversity of terrain: desert, mountains, forest, numerous national parks, the salt flats and, of course, the great salt lake. This trip took me to only the lower southwestern corner of the state. The objective was to visit Bryce and Zion national parks.

Because the weather has been so dry for so long and because of the 100 degree days, forest fires have broken out in many places in the state (along with other southwestern states). These fires cause much pollution plus cause some highways to be closed for days.

The first stop after leaving Las Vegas was Cedar City. This city was recently rated by the American Automobile Association (AAA) as the most friendly to commuters. I am not sure how the town earned such distinction as I found traffic jams in several places after 9:00 am. I visited the town library (to use a PC to get to the Internet). I was impressed. Any library that has many young children there is doing things as they should be doing.

Bryce National Park was the first true destination. It was quite a drive along several mountainous curvy roads, especially just west of Cedar City. A beautiful large lake was there but I was not able to stop to get a picture. Too bad.

Bryce is a beautiful park, well marked, good map with descriptions, nicely paved roads. The park has numerous scenic lookout points along the twenty plus miles of roads. Unfortunately, all roads are two lane only. Once you get behind someone putting along at 20 mph, you are stuck until the next lookout. Many tourists were there so getting around quickly to the various lookout points was impossible. I gave up after seeing five of them.

Zion National Park was the other park I visited. A long drive between the two parks was more mountainous curvy roads. HINT: if you visit this park, approach it from west to east instead of east to west as I did, especially if you do not like long tunnels. The park bisects the highway leading on to the towns of Hurricane and St. George. Surprisingly, a security checkpoint was set up along the highway instead of inside the park itself. So those countless tourists each had to stop for a brief inspection. Maybe it was to protect the tunnel from terrorists. I did not ask.

By the time I actually made it to the main tourist road for the park, I had lost interest. It had been a long day and it was very hot. The scenery along the highway getting to that point was good enough for me. So I headed on to St. George for the night. LESSON LEARNED: Do not try to visit both parks on the same day during the summer.

The city of St. George was a pleasant surprise. The city is cut in two by the interstate I-15. It is certainly a tourist town and has all of the appropriate "trappings" to take advantage of them. Extra wide streets. Streets are named by the block number and direction from main (eg. West 100). Clever. Many shops in the good sized downtown. Numerous places to eat too. Their library was an excellent facility with many parking spaces shaded by huge trees.

The next morning as I left St. George I saw a beautiful orange sky behind a mountain (or butte) as the sun was ready to rise for the day.