Today was my last morning in Nevada. I had no idea I'd spend so much time here, but it was great getting around various parts of the state. I really like Nevada for its history, the feeling of independence, the vastness of the state, etc. In the southern part of the state, I like the rock formations, palm trees, joshua trees, and other desert plants. I can't say I'm a big fan of Las Vegas, however.
I did visit a big casino just to sort of see what it's like. I do not gamble, not even just to put a couple of dollars down and see what might happen (I already know: the house wins....and that money could go towards plenty of other expenses on this trip). It's not simply that I think gambling is a waste; it simply does not appeal to me at all. The casino I visited (Mandalay Bay) included a hotel, restaurants, and lots of shopping areas. Of course, there were electronic (read: easier to rig than mechanical) slot machines, poker tables, etc. all over. It was like a shopping mall inside and almost like a maze to get through.
Next to the Mandalay Bay casino is the Luxor Pyramid, complete with a mildly tacky sphinx. Across the street is a tacky Statue of Liberty. There is a building (or series of buildings) made to look like a castle called Excalibur. But, ultimately, like any other big city, it's too crowded for me.
One thing I also do not like in Las Vegas and throughout other southern and western states is the over reliance on red light cameras. I make it a point to drive safely, but these cameras tend to make me nervous. With cash strapped cities, is it definitely true that they are using them properly? Having read some stories on the Internet about newspapers doing exposes on cities shortening the yellow light time to make money, how can the cities be trusted? These things are cash machines. Yes, it's great to catch people who are buzzing through red lights and putting everyone else in harm's way. But shortening a yellow light to make money could seriously cause injury or even death as people try to slam on their brakes. Las Vegas has a camera literally at every traffic light. Monitoring businesses are hired to oversee these cameras and they get a cut on the money raked in. So, rather than just a safety device, these are cash cows. The events seen in a picture may not give a full story. For example, what a police officer might feel is not an offense, a person simply looking at a photo could be influenced to charge the driver simply to make money. Apparently, cities take a while to send the notification to the driver so that it's more difficult for the driver to remember the circumstances. Further, they apparently do not always supply a photo of the incident for "privacy reasons." They evidently require the person to physically come in to view the evidence. This is simply to burden the alleged offender and make them plead guilty, or hire a lawyer and have an extra layer of expenses.
Anyway, leaving Las Vegas, my next destination was Zion National Park. I planned to go to the main section of the park, not Kolob Canyons, which I had seen on April 15th. This is the first big western park to which I have made a return visit. With my national parks pass, the $25 entry fee was covered.
I headed north on I-15, retracing the route I had done three years ago in my southwest trip. This briefly cut through Arizona and into Utah. When I crossed the Arizona/Nevada line, I was technically in Mountain Time (Nevada is in Pacific Time), but as Arizona does not observe daylight savings time, I was still in the same time as Pacific Time. However, once I crossed the Utah/Arizona line, I was definitely in Mountain Time (with daylight savings time) and officially lost one hour.
As usual, the mountains and rock formations around southern Utah were beautiful. The lighting was perfect. I was getting exhausted at this point and had to stop for a little while before actually getting to the park. I went to a small tourist shop and had some root beer float ice cream. There weren't a lot of other decent choices for food at this place and it was fairly isolated. Had I waited until I got closer to the park, I could have had all sorts of choices.
The park was absolutely beautiful with deep blue skies against the red rocks. There are numerous switchbacks on the way up the mountain, and even a tunnel. Park staff shut down one lane of traffic for safety.
Near the end of my visit to the park, I noticed cars stopped and people crouched watching something. A man silently pointed to an area and I noticed what they were looking at. A mountain goat was eating off a tree. I was able to get lots of pictures. The goat didn't seem to care that people were watching him. He even posed a few times. This is just like the animals in Yellowstone National Park. They all pose for people too.
Thankfully, the hotel was only about forty miles away from the park. I was getting exhausted from all this travel so I was glad it was not going to be several more hours. I had no idea where I was going next. Either I could backtrack through I-70 on the way east, head down into Arizona and go across I-40 (too far out of the way), or go up to Salt Lake City and head east from there. I'd have to decide the next day.
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