Our trip to Zion and back

(Lynn's perspective. Maria may have her own perspective!)
So Maria (wife), Toby (canine) and I finally got to go on vacation, and we stayed away from work for just over two weeks, a record for us. And since I took a couple of pics on the trip, I figured I'd show them. (Maria also took a bunch of pics, but they're her story, not mine.)
Our trip took us from Angel Fire (New Mexico) to Zion National Park and back, with lots of stops in between, sometimes for a few minutes and sometimes for several days. At Zion we stayed for five days, which is just not enough time to do the place any more than cursory justice.  
Before going too much further, I should add that we often use our "bible" for Navajo and Hopi country, Fran
Kosik's Native Roads. Our poor first edition is really ratty at this point, with most pages falling out. Maybe
someday we should purchase the new second edition. Anyway, the book is a real gold mine for fans of the
region!
From Angel Fire, we made it to Farmington, where we stayed at Mom and Pop's RV Park. It's an ok place
for a night on a gravel parking lot next to a busy street, given the price. No pics of the experience.
Our next goal was Page, AZ via the usual northern route: Shiprock, Tec Nos Pos, Kayenta, then shortcutting
up to Page (Hwy 98) rather than going through Tuba City. Before we made the cut-off, all three of us were tired, hungry,
and in need of a pee stop, so we stopped at Church Rock. Couple of pics here. (All pics are thumbnails here and below. Click to enlarge; back to return.)

In Page, we stayed at Page Lake Powell Campground, an OK place with a reasonable price, nice views, and a hot tub thing that my wife digs on. No internet access, though. We stayed one night on the way and a few more nights on the return trip, a matter I had some misgivings about, given that I happened to be reading Abbey's Monkey Wrench Gang at the time. (Let's go blow up that damned plug in the river!) Anyway, I did manage to take several bad pictures, the least bad of which is below, a shot down on an oxbow in the river just below the dam. I took a shower at the park, too, a matter that certainly improved the smell in the truck.
From Page, it was on to Zion the long way around: Bitter Water, Lee's Ferry, and Jacob Lake, where we discovered
that the north rim and all related RV businesses were still closed, durnit. Did lunch at Lee's Ferry and snapped a couple more shots (below). And decided to push on up past Fredonia to Kanab to spend a night at some RV park that advertised a pool (yes, for my wife) that turned out to be still closed, too. It was there that we discovered we'd made another boo-boo: Our reservation at Watchman Campground (Zion) was not for the next day, but two days out. Disgusting. So we spent two nights in Kanab. Ok, their prices were high, but we had net access, and I took another shower to boot.

Finally on to Zion National Park, again the long way around: Back down to Fredonia, up to Hurricane, Springdale and the park. What a darned beautiful place! So, thought I, time to get out the camera, but that's when I discovered that many places in Zion are really right in your face, hence inappropriate for wide shots with my two lenses. Boy, wish I had that wide-angle lens that I used all over Europe to take pics in narrow streets! Well, so had to settle for just a couple of shots with my camera. (A little aside here; I bid on a wide-angle lens on E-bay soon after our return and got it!)
The evening view from Watchman, about 30 paces from the Airstream door:
Up at the Lower/Middle/Upper Emerald Pools (a longish hike, but not a scary one!):

Up at the Narrows, just where you have to wade in. (We didn't wade in; no appropriate footware.)
See how frustrating it was not to have an appropriate lens??
Ok, so we finally did have to leave and head back here. Work waits, but we took our sweet time. A couple more days back at Page (same park, same hot tub thing, another shower for Lynn), then down through Tuba City, where we finally got what we'd been anticipating for months: A really good Navajo Taco!!! (The old truck stop on the main highway that used to serve really good ones is, by the way, no more. But the tacos at the restaurant next to the trading post up on main street are very, very good, and there's also a good place to park the rig across the street in an empty lot!)
Onwards, this time to Navajo National Monument by Kayenta, one of our favorite places to stay! Took a couple of the hikes, took a couple of shots of Betatakin ruin and the canyon (below).

Oh, dread. From now on, home is just getting closer and closer, but we tried to avoid the obvious by heading on to Navajo Lake for one last relaxing afternoon and evening. But not before stopping by Shiprock, peeing, and getting a couple shots:

And managed a couple more snapshots at Navajo Lake:

But, finally, home beckoned, and I needed another shower anyway, according to Maria and Toby.