Staying in the old US of A!

Having traveled on just about every continent (getting to the last one -Antarctica - next January), we realized that there are a lot of places right here at home we (or at least I) have not seen.  These include most of the national parks. So this time, we are staying in the good old US of A, and starting to make a dent in the list of the BIG national parks (the only one I have seen so far is Yosemite, and I was - this is not too strong a word- enchanted).  This time around, we are doing Zion, Brice, and the grandest of them all, the grand canyon!

We left home unreasonably early:  woke up at 4am, got picked up at 4:30, got to JFK at 5:40am for our 6:50am flight to LasVegas.  Flying to LasVegas is just bizarre - you can clearly see from the air that this is a bad idea:  there is this huge and very dry desert, and then, in the middle of it, this huge, crazy place....  We escaped it as quickly as we could, and drove straight north on I15 through some other odd places....  Can anyone explain how the town of Mesquite, NV, came into existance, and, more puzzling yet, how it seems to be growing?  It is even more in a desert than LasVegas.  The temperature today was 106!!!!  AND  - it seems to be a resort town, with big casinos, etc....  who goes there?
Anyway, we then got into Utah, and the town of St George - which is prettier - and VERY Mormon....  Then the landscape changes dramatically - still very dry, but much more majestic.  Only a preview of what awaits us in Zion National park!  We just drove through the park to get to our resort, and tomorrow we will go back and really take in the sights, and do some serious hiking.  I may or may not do some "canyoneering" on Sunday - i'll think about it more when i'm less tired.
Trying to stay awake till 8pm - not sure it is going to work.  Pictures tomorrow.