Day 38 - Zion in a Day

Okay, so we technically did do a tiny bit of Zion yesterday, but today was our main park day.  It is so hot (104) that we are basically just popping in to say we saw it.  (Because our wise friends said we had to).  ;-)

We started off catching the shuttle (no private vehicles in the park May-Oct) at the Visitor’s Center and hopping off at the Emerald Pools Trail.  We hiked up the short walk to the pools to find a nice spray of water coming down off the cliff above.  The pool wasn’t much to see (called “Emerald” because of the green algae), but the mini-waterfalls were refreshing.  Carmen got the wettest of all of us.  It made us cooler for the walk back down.  There are a lot of people here!

Then we shuttled over to the Weeping Rock where we found a ranger giving a talk.  The girls were required to attend a ranger program for this junior ranger badge.  We checked that off and headed up the very short walkway to Weeping Rock.  The water that seeps out through the porous sandstone is 1200 years old.  This spot was much more crowded and not quite as nice as the first, though the view from there was pretty.

After this we headed straight for the end of the road.  There is a 1-mile walkway called Riverside Trail that winds along beside the Virgin River into the canyon.  At the end of that, the hike continues . . . into the river and through the canyon (the Narrows).  Next time we will rent water hiking shoes and socks (the socks look like they were made from wet suit material) and hiking sticks.  Although, I think we’d be fine without the sticks.  We would also wear bathing suits.  This time, we had all agreed ahead of time we wanted to see the Narrows, but didn’t have to hike it.  The girls just wanted to play in the water.  After about 20 min of that, they were asking to hike in.  I was up for it, so we left Brad resting on a rock (his back is slightly messed up), and we hiked in.  We only went maybe a half-mile till we got to a place where the water got waist high.  I was not excited about that.  I told the girls they could go through a little further and come back, but they decided it was too cold.  I didn’t have the camera at that point, but there is just the river closed in by two narrow cliff walls going straight up.  Really pretty.

By this time (2:30) our tummies were hungry.  We packed in morning snacks, but ate a late lunch at the Lodge café.

Then we stopped on the way back up (or “down canyon”) for a photo op at the Three Patriarchs.  (It is a Mormon discovered area!)

Next we got off the shuttle at the Human History Museum so the girls could look at a plaque for their Jr. Ranger book.  From here we walked/hiked (oh it was so hot) to the Nature Center.  This was a great stop, but they were closing in 45 min.  Carmen was a little disappointed b/c there was more she wanted to do.  Then we had to walk to the Visitor’s Center (more HOT!).  ~The shuttle doesn’t stop at the Nature Center.~  Here the girls finished their books and got their badges and we headed to Springdale for shopping and supper.  We ate at the Café Soleil.  Very cute and delicious.  I had a Portobello mushroom and mozzarella Panini (with arugula and sun-dried tomatoes!)  I am liking this eating out routine, albeit short-lived.

Back to camp for showers and bed.  Zion is a pretty place.  I’m glad our friends encouraged us stop here.  It’s kind of funny because most people we talked to out here have a definite favorite between Zion and Bryce.  It seemed to be about 50/50.  On the way back to camp, we finished off our day with a sighting of Big-Horn sheep!  We wouldn’t have seen them if we had been staying on the west side.  Happy travels (and stay on the wrong side sometimes!)


Zion in a Day