Utah - Zion & Bryce

Back in late April, I (David) had a work trip in Las Vegas. I went a few days early to visit some family in town and then to head out to some national parks in Utah for the weekend. My friend's Jon and Elaine joined me in Las Vegas for the trip along with their toddler Gwyneth. I'm always incredibly excited to spend time with these folks, they're some of my favorite people. ^_^ As an added bonus, this was my first trip with a toddler and I learned a lot of useful tricks that will be helpful when my nephew Alex gets a bit older!

There are many national parks in Utah. This trip we visited Zion and Bryce Canyon. I love the west! The big empty spaces, variable weather, elevation and wildlife are all really interesting to me, as an east-coast person. Zion Canyon is one of the most amazing national parks I've visited, and I'd highly recommend anyone visiting Las Vegas take the few hour drive out to Utah to check these places out. They're way better than some casino.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a tons of pictures, but here's some of the highlights of the trip! Starting with Bryce Canyon and ending with Zion.

Sadly, this was the most snow I'd seen all year

Bryce Canyon is full of hoodoos and fins

Some snow at the top of the Canyon, around 9,000 feet

I think this is a bristlecone pine. They can live for up to 5,000 years! This tree was possibly alive before the pyramids were built.

Look over there, Gwyneth, it's daddy!

It was pretty cold, she wasn't thrilled about being in this thing until I started jumping up and down...which isn't super fun (for me anyway) at 9,000 feet.

At Bryce canyon, accommodations are limited. There's a town right near the entrance that's pretty small, but with a few chain hotels and restaurants. Unfortunately, there was really nothing good to eat. I'd recommend you camp, or plan to not stay in this area overnight. Accommodations near Zion are much nicer and you can plan to do both parks over a couple days (which is what we did).

Some of the trails were still closed for the season, due to snow. There was one medium-difficulty trail open that wasn't too long so we spent the morning hiking into the canyon. It's a really different view looking out, then it was looking down into the canyon.

I found this in our hotel nightstand. I assumed there'd be a Book of Mormon...but why is it in Italian?!

Woot! Go GT!

This area was called Wall Street, I guess it looked like skyscrapers to people in the early 20th century

Aww...too much excitement for one day! Man, I look in my 30s in this picture...

After spending a day in Bryce Canyon, we headed off towards Zion, which is on the way back towards Las Vegas. The main route follows a small verdant canyon, which is a nice change from the orange/brown Bryce Canyon. On the way there we stopped at the Wild Boar Bistro (which may have closed) in Glendale, Utah. They had great grilled cheese sandwiches and some local Utah beer on tap.

Utah brewers seem to enjoy taking jabs at the establishment!

The Wild Boar Cafe had some weird roadside mannequins!

After lunch, we drove the rest of the way to Zion. It was raining so we didn't get a chance to stop in Zion on the way in. The accommodations and food options in Springdale are much better than in Bryce, and we were able to find a good dinner and rest up for a full day of hiking the next day before our drive back to Vegas.

During the warm months, Zion doesn't allow people to drive into the canyon. Instead, they operate a really exceptional shuttle system that goes from Springdale all the way through the canyon, stopping frequently. It's a really excellent system that helps preserve the serenity of the park while ensuring that we don't have to pave over more of the land than is necessary for parking lots. As a city planner, I approved!

There must be an unspoken rule about beverages sticking it to the man in Utah!

Zion shuttle system

The canyon is pretty wide near the entrance near Springdale

End of the trail at the Virgin River. You can walk through the water into the Narrows if you're interested. Not a good idea in April, the water was pretty cold.

The rain the day before really greened up the park!

Here's the Virgin River again!

By afternoon, the sun shone brightly on the east canyon wall, which made for nice pictures.

Spring has sprung in Zion!

Common view in the canyon. Very beautiful scenery.

This puddle of water entertained her for a good 5 minutes

Too cute, but fully standing in a puddle...

This is from the north part of Zion called the Kolob Canyon

Panda on the loose!

Bounce! Bounce!

ACE UK Coaster Tour - Part 2

Catch up on part 1 of my UK coaster trip here.

After a 2 hour drive from Alton Towers, we arrived at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and checked in to the Big Blue Hotel. We had a welcome reception complete with Pimm's and a visit from the Mayor of Blackpool! The staff at Blackpool really went all out for us. We had a guided tour of the park, a group picture, a buffet dinner, and they gave us a gift pack with a commemorative T-shirt. The park itself is really unique. It's an old seaside park, and still has a lot of old attractions including five historic wooden coasters and a few old dark rides. The park has new attractions too - like a Nickelodeon themed area. Overall it's a good balance between preservation of old rides and new thrilling attractions. The atmosphere is what makes this place. It reminds me a bit of an overgrown Indiana Beach, with rides packed in everywhere. Unfortunately, the coasters, while historic, aren't necessarily great. The Wild Mouse is the best coaster here. As with Alton Towers, we had a day and a half to explore this park and the surrounding area.

Coasters and rides are everywhere at Blackpool.

They had a very fun Wallace and Gromit ride!

The Big One.

A view down one of the Midways, with the classic Big Dipper.

The Wild Mouse is rickety and crazy fun.

Just outside the park is the beach and a bunch of touristy things.

"Official" Disney theming on South Pier, just across from Blackpool Pleasure Beach.

Ummm... yeah.

The Beach with the Big One in the distance.

Sunset over the pier.

Blackpool Tower.

Sunset and sea gulls.

Morning ERT on the Nickelodeon Streak. Check out the padding in those cars! Like a couch from the 1960s.

Nickelodeon Streak and the Blue Flyer. Both from the 1930s and re-themed for the Nickelodeon section.

The unique Steeplechase coaster.

Steeplechase is a triple-racer.

Green is in the lead!

The Big One is very impressive looking, but it basically a giant mine ride. It was the tallest coaster in the world when it opened.

Riding the Wild Mouse.

Lunch time!

Fish and chips with mushy peas. Yum.

You get a little bit wet on Valhalla.

Another classic dark ride.

You ride in a plaid shoe on the Wallace and Gromit ride.

They even have a Dora boat ride, where you travel around the world.

Let's ride the Wild Mouse again!

After leaving Blackpool, our next stop was Leeds for the night. This was our first hotel in the heart of a city, so a few of us took the opportunity to explore. Leeds was much more interesting than I expected, with a lot of new construction around a series of canals.

Downtown Leeds.

Leeds and the central train station, complete with restaurants underneath.

Canals and new buildings in Leeds.

Gotta try the local beer, of course.

View of Leeds from the top of our hotel.

The next day we drove to Flamingoland, a zoo and theme park that was the farthest north we'd go on the trip. At 54.2 degrees north, it's actually further north than the southern islands of Alaska. This park has a lot of coasters (9), but none of them are particularly memorable. They do have Kumali, which is easily the best SLC I've ever been on. It's not wonderful, but it's much smoother than a standard SLC, has a great zero-G roll, and a nice themed entrance gate. I also had the chance to meet up with a couple of friends who live in Manchester. There was also a cute little monster dark ride. I had a great time exploring the park and the zoo with old and new friends.

First credit, a kiddie coaster. Of course. :)

Not a bad ride.

A short visit with Andrew and Brad. Yay!

Just an emu. Nothing to see here.

Baby capybara! It was chilly so they were huddling to stay warm.

Our photo from Velocity.

Our hotel for the night was in downtown Peterborough, another interesting city. It was raining, but we ventured out through the streets to find some dinner. There's a 12th century cathedral in the middle of town, but unfortunately it's closed at night and our attempts to break in were foiled.

Rainy downtown Peterborough. It was a nice city, but pretty empty because it was a rainy evening.

The main square was very atmospheric.

A great dinner in Peterborough.

Another local beer!

The cathedral tower looms over the center of the city.

One more beer back at the hotel. :)

The final day of the trip started with a rainy visit to a couple of neat historic seaside parks. We had a very brief stop at tiny Joyland in Great Yarmouth. It's mostly a children's park, with a fun rooftop/inside kiddie coaster and a Virginia Reel from 1950. Some people counted as many as 3 (!) credits at this park. I only counted one. The second stop, Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach, has a classic 1932 roller coaster with a brakeman who rides along with you because there are no upstop wheels to keep the train from flying off the tracks.

Our first view of Joyland from the bus.

Touristy seaside Great Yarmouth.

The Tyrolean Tubtwist, which some people count as a coaster. It was weird!

Snail ride. Not a roller coaster, people! :)

An overview of the park.

Noted!

Our next stop was the Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach.

There's a roller coaster behind those blue walls!

That's the brakeman. Very unique.

Quick, everyone take a picture of the roller coaster!

Creeeeepy.

This snail was named Chesty La Rue, AKA Busty St.Clair.

The scene from the snail ride, which goes inside the roller coaster structure.

Our last view of Great Yarmouth over the River Yare.

Our final stop of the day (and the trip) was Pleasurewood Hills, a small family park just a few miles south. It was an OK little park, and we were easily able to ride everything in a couple of hours.

Welcome to Pleasurewood Hills.

The only boomerang of the trip, thankfully. Still, they sure are photogenic.

A fun old Schwarzkopf coaster.

There used to be a really hard video game for the original Nintendo called Marble Madness.

The group at Pleasurewood Hills. :)

We rode several of these on the trip. Super looooong train.

See ya later, Pleasurewood Hills!

What better way to end the trip than with another beer, at the Wheatsheaf back by our airport hotel.

And so the trip drew to a close, and I flew back to Atlanta the following morning (while most of the group continued on for the "add-on" parks). I had a blast on this trip, rode a bunch of coasters, visited some good parks, and met a lot of great people. ACE usually does a tour once every two years... so we'll see what happens in 2017.  :)