Friday, September 30
We were up at 7:30 am. I made breakfast (hard-boiled eggs & toast), lunch (PBJ & Fritos), started soaking beans for tonight’s potluck and pulled out other ingredients so they’d be ready to go into the Instant Pot when we got home. I’ve never made baked beans from scratch before but my Instant Pot makes me brave. If interested here’s the recipe I used.
10 miles to the park down this road
We left home at 9:00 am and thankfully today’s drive wasn’t too far…just about 25 miles due south to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. The drive down 89 is beautiful and the 10 mile drive down Sand Dunes Road is pretty in its own right.
Check out those ATV tracks….hmmmm
We paid our $8 entrance fee and first took a loop around the campground. It’s very nicely maintained, has flush toilets, a dump station but no hookups. It would be a great place for Zack, Kelsea and the kids to stay while the zoom around the sand dunes and surrounding areas on their Ranger! (Hint, Hint!)
From there we went to the day use area and did a little hiking around the sand dunes. We didn’t walk too far….just far enough to get some nice pictures of the dunes and the bluffs behind them.
Walking off the trails was the best way to go!
We found that it was easier to walk where other people hadn’t walked as the sand seemed more compacted and you didn’t sink and/or slide as you walked.
Adventurous folk
There were a few more adventurous people than us who actually walked to the top and beyond one of the dunes. I would have tried….but Michael didn’t want to go any further…which was probably good as I might have died trying to conquer the dune!
Little Hollywoodland
Our visit to the park wasn’t very long before we headed to Kanab to visit the Little Hollywood Land Museum. Kanab and the surrounding area has been used for filming movies since the 1920s. Credit for bringing Hollywood to the area goes to the Parry Brothers who leveraged their guiding business at Zion National Park into a virtual Hollywood production machine by luring influential filmmakers to the area.
Can’t remember what movie this set was used in…
Lots of movies and TV shows have been filmed in this area…naming just a few: 1941 – Billy the Kid, 1943 – My Friend Flicka, 1944 – Ali Baba & the Forty Thieves, 1956 – The Lone Ranger, 1961 – The Misfits, 1968 – Planet of the Apes, 1976 – The Outlaw Josey Wales, 1991 – Point Break, 1994 – The Flintstones, 2011 – Planet of the Apes. And TV shows: The Lone Ranger, Death Valley Days, Daniel Boone, Have Gun Will Travel, Gunsmoke, Six Million Dollar Man, Grizzly Adams, Lassie and several others.
From ‘One Little Indian’ with Jodie Foster & James Garner – 1973
The museum is out behind a ‘trading post’ gift shop and has several sets from the movies that have been filmed in the area – The Outlaw Josey Wales, The Little Indian and John Carter of Mars…plus others. Unfortunately, it’s been raining so most of the area of ‘museum’ was muddy and/or blocked off. The sets are in need of some TLC as is the whole area. I was really looking forward to this visit and it was pretty much a big let down.
Used in the movie ‘John Carter from Mars’ – 2012
Funny thing is…is I just recorded the movie John Carter a few days ago not knowing that part of the set was there…so it will be interesting to watch the movie and look for the log building!
Back home I finished preparing the baked beans and started the instant pot and worked on catching up with my blog while Michael puttered around in the basement and visited with a few rally goers.
The potluck was scheduled for 5:00 pm so we left home about 4:20ish to make the drive to the ‘other’ park where it was being held. The rally was originally supposed to be in just the park we’re staying in but when there was so much interest and this park wasn’t big enough to hold everyone another park was added…so half of us are here and half of us are 5 miles down the road at Bryce Zion Campground.
Come and get it!
We didn’t get any rain here but it poured at the other park before we got there and then again while we were on the way there. It drizzled a bit before we ate and while we ate. We had burgers and brats and tons of sides (3 kinds of beans, 3 kinds of corn, pasta salad, deviled eggs, 2 kinds of potato salad, etc…and of course, desserts…lots and lots of desserts!
Judy offering lettuce to 2 of the horses
While the others participated in some raffles Judy and I went over to visit with some horses that came by. They were just a few feet away from our tables of food and we could tell they wanted some food too so we fed them lettuce that was left over from the burgers. We started with 2 horses and by the time we were done we had a total of 6 horses all looking for food! Dorothy went into her coach and came back out with cut up apples to feed them…they dined well tonight!
Michael enjoying the warmth of the fire
The rain had finally stopped so it was time to start the campfire! It was getting a bit chilly so the fire was quite welcomed by everyone. We visited around the fire for a while but finally decided it was time to call it a night as we have our earliest day yet tomorrow…Zion is calling!