S.Calif Trip Day 5- Cedar City, UT to Colton, CA
Cedar City, Utah - Spent the night at The Bard’s Inn in Cedar City, Utah. Finished packing and went to breakfast at 8:30 AM. I talked with owner of the B&B about how she should try to eradicate the Tree of Heaven (Tree From Hell) I noticed growing on her property before it spreads and potentially causes damage to her house. The tree was growing all the way down her driveway and beside the house foundation and was even growing inside her basement window. She said she didn’t realize what it was and about six months ago, she had an arborist cut them down but they had already grown back! I told her they may be almost impossible to get rid of and, unfortunately, she may need to use Roundup. We continued our road trip south on Interstate 15 and took a detour through the Kolob Canyons district of Zion National Park. There was a sign blocking the road saying visitors were required to stop at the visitor center to purchase a $35 pass before entering the park. Thankfully, several years ago when I became eligible,I purchased a Senior National Park Pass which covers entry to all National Parks and public lands nationwide. So, we didn’t need to pay for a park pass. However, we more than made up for it by buying books, maps and other National Park stuff. I talked with the ranger about what we should see and he recommended we at least drive to the Kolob Canyons view point and hike the trail to the Timber Creek Overlook where he said there’s a spectacular view of the canyon. He also added it’s very popular so parking would be tight. The Timber Creek Overlook trail was an easy hike and the view was truly amazing.We continued our road trip and stopped for coffee and a pee break in St. George, Utah. It be had been a while since I had last seen St. George and, to say the least, it had grown a bit. I later Googled "Where does St George" and wasn't too surprised when Google completed the sentence with "get its water". According to sources, the population of St George is projected to grow from 195,200 in 2022 to 425,700 in 2060 even though its single water source, the Virgin River basin is dwindling and the west remains locked in the worst drought in 1,200 years. We continued on through the seemingly endless desert across the northwest corner of Arizona and into Nevada where we eventually could see the Las Vegas skyline looming in the distance.
Like St. George, Las Vegas had grown a bit since the last time I had driven through but I wasn’t really prepared for how huge it had become. The traffic and enormous casinos seemed ridiculously out of place and just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, Trump’s gold casino appeared 😱We continued on and made another gas and pee stop in Primm, Nevada. Accordiing to Wikipedia, Primm was previously known as State Line but the name was changed to Primm in 1996 to avoid confusion with Stateline in northern Nevada. Its economy is primarily based on Southern California gamblers wanting to stop before reaching Las Vegas 40 miles away. Something that surprised me while going through Primm was the number of Tesla charging stations and the effort being made by Tesla and Elon Musk to facilitate travel to and in Las Vegas in a Tesla. We continued our road trip and surprisingly ran into rain with thunder and lightning near Barstow, California. The rain with the addition of fog and heavy traffic made the drive over the Cajon Pass even more exciting than usual. Thankfully, drivers were being surprisingly cautious and after a quick stop for food, we made it to Colton, California by around 6 PM.
Things I Learned On This Day (#TILOTD) –
.JPG "Trump Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada")
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