Day 166, Thursday, November 17

Left Henderson intending to stay at KOA Glendale. Drove through Zion on the way to the campground and was fascinated by the stunning folded rock strata. I didn’t stop to take pictures because I wanted to set up camp as early as possible so I’ll have to come back and take pictures of what I saw tomorrow or the day after. As it turns out, the KOA was closed for the season, so I drove back through park intending to stay at the campground in the park for $16. A ranger had told me that I could stay in the park and then use the showers at a private campground just outside the park. Turns out that the showers are $4 at the private campground, but camping, which includes the showers is $20. Pretty easy decision there. The ability to walk to the showers rather than drive to them and also to use the hot water in the bathrooms for washing dishes rather than heating water with my stove speak loudly to staying outside the park.
Temperature was/is damn cold. Gotta be freezing. Made spaghetti dinner and as I was sitting down to eat, a girl stopped by from an adjacent campsite to talk. she is here from Fairbanks AL on a Wilderness First Response medical training course. She seemed like a really interesting person and had traveled/journeyed all over the world. After finishing the week-long course, she’s headed to hike up Kilamanjaro.