Coral Pink Sand Dunes state park in Utah

The previous post in this trip series is here..

We had just enough time after finishing lunch at Bryce lodge to make a 45 minute stop at Coral PInk Sand Dunes state park. We had planned this as part of the trip as it had rave reviews. It was an extra 1 hour detour and we were warned that return traffic when we cross the tunnel into Zion would be horrible later in the day. Still we had the 45 minutes and were glad we went.

The drive on local state routes from Bryce to Coral Pink dunes was beautiful with the trees showing fall colors. We got in, went straight to the observation deck, then down to the large dune to do a photo shoot and started driving back. The weather was cool and the sand was not hot. It was extremely windy and the fine sand did a facial for all of us. The standing bow I did with the wind in my face was one of the most difficult I have tried. My feet kept going into the stand even as I was still. It was more difficult than doing this on a beach with waves!

If you do start early enough from Zion to do Bryce, then definitely recommend this. Our return was slow because of the tunnel traffic. The sky put on quite a show on route 15. Still we made it to the airport with 10 minutes go give an earful to the Avis manager for giving us a smoke filled car. I pretty much slept through the return flight as my feet were shaking.

A video highlights reel of the dunes and the drives to dunes and back to Vegas..

Was very glad we went on the trip. Lot of nature, fun with friends, happy wife, bucket list item checked off.. felt happy and contented after this trip.

Glamping in Mars.. the Wadi Rum desert

The previous post in this series is here..

We raced out of Petra towards Wadi Rum desert to catch the sunset there. It was supposed to be the highlight of the evening.

We stopped at the mountain sides to see the desert from a distance for two minutes. Rest of the time it was just driving. We saw the original railroad that the Ottoman Empire had that was bombed out by the locals to help the British divide and conquer them.

After 2+ hours we showed up at the camp.

The terrain here is out of this world.. a lot of Alien movies are shot here. Martian was also shot here. Everything has a red glow to it. The sand eroded rocks formations look unique.

The person at the reception told us that we were the only guests in the entire camp for the night, thanks to flight cancelations and state department warnings! He was sad. He said normally the place is full two days before Christmas. Today we were the only visitors for not just this camp but most of the camps on this section of the desert.

Our guides realized there was not enough time to catch an open jeep ride or camel ride to go see the sunset from the dunes.. So they said "just go up to the top of the hill in the camp and you will get the view!".

We walked up, took pictures, saw yet another group of cats there and walked back down. It was eerily silent.

They would turn on the hot water for 30 minutes to an hour just for us given the camp was empty. We agreed on a time and it worked out. There was a dining tent and a post dinner fireside tent. We were the only visitors. The cooks were from Egypt and both of them did a wonderful job serving us vegetarian dishes. Did I mention the cabins were really nice inside! 

Got my paruppu sadham and roti (the Jordanian version) and was happy! We had some good tea next to a fire, joked around for 30 minutes and it was time to go sleep. It was freezing outside and the cats kept trying to get into the cabins. Some of us were already showing signs of allergies thanks to the cats and we were running low on Claritin supplies!

The night sky is supposed to be amazing here.

We were able to see a star studded sky with our naked eyes after they adjusted to the dark, but there was simply too much light pollution from the camp itself. They refused to turn off the flood lights. Then there was light from all the other camps. We spent an hour sitting above the last cabin on the hill to take these pictures. Most of them are 10 second exposures..

a sample..

A gallery of night sky portraits..

By this time we got worried texts from the ladies on why we didn't come back. I tried to clean the skylight filter on my SLR as it was showing hazy images.. only to drop it on the floor in the dark. That "clink" sound of glass breaking was not good. Guess San is going to find out that I broke a 50$ filter by reading this blog..

We had a good nights sleep but we all had to set an alarm to catch the 30 minute hot water window before breakfast. I woke up earlier and ran up the hill again to catch some golden hour photos before sunrise. They were "meh".. and by the time everyone assembled, the sun was up!

A candid shot of a scared San.. she is afraid of all dogs and cats and animals in general.. these cats were very aggressive and woud hiss at us and try to scratch!

A better pic after I shooed the cat to the side.. 

A video highlight of Wadi Ram!

we drove out of Wadi Rum (Valley of the Moon is what it means) after saying bye to the camp..to some amazing views in the haze after a simple breakfast. There was no milk for tea. Apparently cows milk in an alien concept here. The cheese they have is all goat cheese. It was good.

It was a 3+ hour drive to our last destination..