Jay, You are correct, you would need to take care of your own accommodations. Most of the time we will point our explicitly if you need reservations for the campground. This is because frequently they don't take reservations. On a few occasions we have reserved a group site. We would also tell you about this when we do it that way. For the St. George party we have been staying in St. George in a motel. Debbie is looking for a new location because the area that we have been going to has a lot of 4X4 traffic and even some parting Dixie College students that have interrupted us a few times. These are not public outreach star parties although a couple of years ago, Dead Horse Point found out that we were coming and asked us to do a presentation for their ranger show. OAS typically plans a private star party for every month from February through October. Here are samples, we are always looking for new locations. Obviously these are all as close as we can get to new moon. February - St. George March - Messier Marathon at Curlew (north of Snowville) April - Dead Horse Point May - Parowan Gap June - Bear Lake (need a new location, this one wasn't good) July - Monte Cristo August - Monte Cristo September - Cathedral Gorge or Dead Horse Point October - Mini Messier Marathon at Curlew Out of all of these, only Dead Horse Point takes reservations for camping. Dave -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Jay Eads Sent: Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:41 AM To: Utah-Astronomy Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Star Party at Kolob Canyons section of Zion NP I'm laying here reading recovering from the 24 hour stomach flu since yesterday and I'm trying to get a handle on this. First, are the star parties that SLAS participates in at Zion, or Capitol Reef outreach, for personal observing, both? Second are the ones that Debbie is talking about personal observing or outreach? Also, I have camped in cold weather so I'm not afraid of that but I don't have a trailer or anything like that, just a large 5 person tent, and I assume that is ok as long as I am prepared to sleep in cold weather? Finally, I am assuming that if I go to an event whether it is SLAS, or OAS etc., that I need to call ahead and reserve and pay for my own campground? Sorry for all the questions but I haven't attended any, and would like to clarify so I can make plans to attend some of these events. On 2009-10-21 07:24, Patrick Wiggins wrote:
On 20 Oct 2009, at 22:07, Craig Smith wrote:
It's probably easier/faster to get to Kolob Canyons from Salt Lake than to either Bryce Canyon or Capitol Reef.
Having driven to Bryce 6 and 7 times a year for the past 23 years I'm pretty familiar with the route and I'm pretty sure the drive from SLC to Bryce or Kolob is about the same.
Drive time from I-15 exit 95 (where one gets off the freeway onto highway 20) to Bryce is almost exactly 1 hour if one sticks to the speed limit.
Drive time from that same exit to the Kolob Canyon exit is about 45 minutes. Add a few minutes to get to the canyon and you're at about an hour.
Cheers,
patrick
_______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com