It’s been a great rally!  It was sad to see all the Alpines leave this morning (Wednesday) 🙁  There were many, many hugs and ‘see-ya-laters’.

Some of the Alpines passed by as we finished taking down the EZ-Up Tents, and packed up the tables and chairs to take them back to the rental place in downtown Page.

This time we switched it up and put the round tables in my truck (above) and the chairs in Daves’ (below).

By-the-way, is anyone missing their lawn ornament?  This one (below) was left in site 22.  Yes – we know who you are (Mike & Donna).  We were thinking about holding it for ransom.  If you want it back, just contact the Guhsés’ who may deliver it to the next rally for a fee 🙂

After finishing up with the rally clean-up, Stilla and I took the Silverado to Hanging Garden.  We’ve passed by the entrance sign many times on our travels between Page and the campground.

Some of the other Alpiners stopped by here during the Rally and told us it was worth seeing.  We turned just after the Glen Canyon Bridge at the sign (above) and went down the gravel road to the parking area.  When we saw that the road continued on down towards the lake after the parking area, we decided to see where it went.  Here’s the view back to the Glen Canyon Bridge from the road.

The gravel road ended in another parking lot overlooking the lake.  We parked the truck and walked down closer to the lake.

After checking out the cool rock formations, we drove back up to the Hanging Garden Trail parking area.

The informational placard says it’s a 1-mile round trip.

View (below) of the massive rock formation near the parking area that we had to walk around to get to the Hanging Garden.

We started down the trail with a full bottle of cold water.

And we kept walking…

and walking…

and walking.

When the trail wasn’t easy to see; we just followed all the rocks lined up along the sides.

Stilla posed for a picture in front of some neat looking sandstone formations.

And we just kept following the rock-lined trail.

We were completely alone so far on our hike and almost began wondering if should have waited for the 5 PM ranger-guided tour… what if we took a wrong turn?

We pressed on and kept following the trail over hard rock…

and through soft sand…

until we finally saw from a distance, what looked like it could be a Hanging Garden (below).

We hiked up the hill towards the shady alcove.

View of the lake behind us.

And finally!  Here it is – the Hanging Garden.

We had it all to ourselves.

I’ll bet these flowers (below) look really nice when they bloom.

Another view back toward the lake from the Hanging Garden (below).

We took a few more pictures and started our hike back to the parking lot.  Another couple finally showed up after we arrived, so we were no longer the only ones on the trail.

Our water bottle was empty by now and the sun was cooking us slowly.

One last picture of the Hanging Garden on our way out.

We were glad to be back at the truck where we had another bottle of water.  The Hanging Garden was definitely worth the hike.  Check it out if you’re in the area 🙂

After a stop at WalMart in Page for a few groceries, we made it back to the campground to relax for the rest of our last evening here at the Wahweap Campground.

We found David & Nicole back at their Coach – just relaxing after their tiresome tour-of-duty as wagon master(s).

We’ll say our farewells before we pack up and head out this morning (Thursday) after I get this post published.  They are going to stay a couple more days to try and see some of the local sites that they didn’t have time for while performing all their wagonmaster duties.

We’re thinking about heading over to Kanab, UT today.  We heard there’s some good attractions there.  And it’s conveniently along our route to Las Vegas NV, where we want to be on the 22nd to meet our son William who’s coming in from Germany to visit for a couple/few weeks 🙂  Check back on us…