Lunch and Snack go to Utah (and beyond)

August-September 2013

Heading south from Utah, the bovines stop to admire a line of rock formations that line Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park across the state line in Arizona.

The valley, used for decades for filming western movies, is part of the Colorado Plateau and used by the Navajo Nation as a tourist attraction.

Although intrigued by the thought of visiting, the cows decided they didn't have time to tour the valley and pressed on with their journey.

While taking a much-needed civilization break in Page, Ariz., the cows stop by the visitor center for the Glen Canyon Dam, which impounds Lake Powell, the second largest artificial lake in the United States. The lake is the focal point of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Although the 710-foot tall dam is operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the rec area is administered by the National Park Service.

The cows again returned to a place they'd been before -- the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park. The view was indeed spectacular, much as they remembered it.

It was a wonderful place to spend an afternoon.

"If we rub his nose, will we have good luck?"

Lunch and Snack took time out to visit a bronze statue of Brighty in the Grand Canyon Lodge at Bright Angel Point.

The statue honors a real-life burro named Brighty who lived at the Grand Canyon from 1892 to 1922 and was featured in a children's novel of the same name by Marguerite Henry.

The campground at North Rim was full, but there was plenty of room to pitch a tent and start a campfire back in Zion National Park. The return visit to Zion set the stage for the last leg of the cows' adventure.

"I don't mind returning here Snack. It's a very nice place to be for the night."

"Do we have any marshmallows?"

In a last-minute decision, the bovines head north to Great Basin National Park in east-central Nevada -- one of the least-visited parks in the entire national park system.

At Great Basin, Lunch and Snack took a ranger-guided tour of Lehman Caves, one of the park's highlights. The cavern eventually led the way to national park status when President Warren G. Harding created Lehman Caves National Monument by proclamation in 1922. The area became a national park in 1986.

Lunch and Snack admire the view of Wheeler Peak, the highest point in the park. At 13,063 feet above sea level, Wheeler is the second highest point in Nevada, trailing 13,147-foot Boundary Peak on the other side of the state.

"You know Lunch, it certainly is a pretty mountain."

"It is indeed."

At last, it was time to return to civilization in Las Vegas. But for the final night of their adventure, Lunch and Snack visited The Neon Boneyard Park, a repository of dismantled signage from old Las Vegas. A wide variety of iconic signs have made their way to the boneyard.

"Wow, this is amazing. Look at all the signs!"

Although not all of the signs are operable, enough still work to make the boneyard a magical place to visit after the sun goes down.

It was finally time for the adventure to end and the cows look out from the concourse at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport at the jet that would take them home.

"Well Snack, we got smoked out of going to Yosemite, but this trip was a fun second choice and we saw a lot of cool places that we may not of seen otherwise."

"Yep Lunch, no regrets!"