Day 11 – Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park

I know I’ve been saying this quite a bit, but the site we had last night was pretty darn cool. It was located about 5 miles outside of Bryce Canyon National Park on BLM Land. We had wedged Olimas between a cluster of trees to be somewhat blocked from the wind. Last night the wind was pretty dang strong and was a howling!! Mama said it woke her up a few times, but daddy slept right through it.

Now come morning time, however, it was 21 degrees when I woke up and it was chilly in the van. Couldn’t figure out why, but after I started taking off some of the window covers, I noticed the driver-side window was down about an inch or two. No wonder the cold air was rushing in! I ended up making some coffee outside while Mama was slowly getting up. Met a younger gentleman who was down from NC as well with his family. We chatted for a bit. Had coffee with Mama, packed up Olimas, and started heading towards Zion.

The plan was to go to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park today and then camp near Zion in the evening. We were only about an hour plus from CPSD, so we couldn’t wait to get out of the cold morning air into some desert sand heat. Luckily as we got closer to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes (CPSD), the temperature really started to rise. Entered the park and just had a ball!

We walked out onto the dunes and watched all the people trying to glide down them. Some were far more talented than others. The sand was truly a pinkish tone color and was the softest and finest sand I have ever felt. You can’t really compare to beach sand. Before leaving I made sure to grab some sand for Olivia and placed it in a ZipLock for prosperity.

Headed out of CPSD and onward to Zion. Zion was only around a 30-minute drive, so we figured we would look for a place to Boondock and settle in for the evening. We made it to Orderville, the biggest town north of Zion National Park, and saw a sign for the best Ho-Made pies around. We had to stop! Anna got a four berry pie and claimed it was super Yummy!

On the way to Zion, about 10 miles out from the park entrance, we passed what looked like a restaurant in front of an amazing pasture where a herd of buffalo was grazing. I had to stop and take some pictures. Out of curiosity, we headed back to the building to find that it was a store and restaurant. Bonus! We decided to stay and eat. A really unique place. It had chickens running around outside, a produce/vegetable house – where you could sit and eat your to-go food, a backyard full of buffalo, an old-time building with some much personality, and food that was downright delicious. I told Anna that the Butter Lettuce salad I ate was the best I’ve ever eaten.

Onward to our campsite, which we found pretty quickly. It was not for the faint of heart and luckily we had 4x4 capabilities. It’s nice because most of the vehicles can’t reach what we can in the Revel. Pitch up our camp and sat in for some fire time, before calling it a night.