Zion! October 31-November 4, 2011

The ride from Las Vegas to Zion was beautiful! Bright blue skies and easy driving on I-15. Along the way Linda and Peter Jankay, who were traveling with friends Archie and Andrea Waterbury, passed us...both of us heading for Zion National Park about an hour east of St George, Utah. But we arrived at the park first! It was really warm and luckily we had reserved a shady river campsite at Watchman Campground so we set out chairs in the shade and enjoyed the amazing view of the red sandstone walls. This was the first time either of us had visited Zion and we were in awe of the natural beauty surrounding us.  At this time of year there is only one campground open and we were so surprised to see the campground FULL when we arrived on Monday, really glad I had made a reservation.

By 5:30 the Jankays and Waterburys joined us for wine and snacks and a chance to visit then dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Springdale. The temp began to drop once the sun went behind the mountains. So funny that Linda's hotel was right across the river and they could see us from their rooms! From the heat of the afternoon it was surprising at how quickly the temperature dropped and continued dropping through the night; we woke to about 30 degrees the next morning.

Tuesday morning we met up again to see the beauty along the Scenic Drive with the first stop at The Narrows.  It was a very chilly morning and the sun hadn't reached the sides of the canyon yet. Peaceful and so beautiful with the trees changing colors.

Cold, but really beautiful! the six of us walked and talked till we got to the end of the Riverside Walk Trail...too chilly to step into the water and follow it into the narrower channels where the walls often have only an 18 ft span across. From there the trail continues for another 16 miles...the trail becomes the river itself. The Zion Narrows route is the most popular hike in the park and said to be one of the world's best canyon hikes...but not for us in November...That will have to wait for another trip in warmer weather!
It seems that Zion is a MUST for Photographers as every other person on the trail was carrying real cameras and tripods, as for me, all my photos are done on my iphone, easy and compact!

We saw this charming and very well trained squirrel begging along the path

and we spent time watching just staring at the incredible walls surrounding us.  It's so hard to grasp how this Virgin River actually carved and sculpted the walls of the canyon.

Several artists were also painting the landscape of the park as part of a Plein Air weeklong event and was fun to see where ever we were in the park.

Had lunch at the Zion Lodge before we headed back to check on Foster in the campground and fall asleep in the afternoon sun.

The IMAX Theater was showing a wonderful film on the history of Zion which we decided to see at 5:00 before having dinner together again...this time I did the cooking and to keep warm we changed from our outside campground/cafe seating to Linda's beautiful condo at Cable Mountain Lodge. What a delightful evening laughing and talking! They were all leaving early the next morning for the next leg of their National Park Tour so we said our goodbyes and headed back to our little house. We still had 2 more days to see more of the park.

Wednesday we took the road, Highway 9, out to the eastern side of Zion to see if we felt comfortable going that way when we left on Friday.

The Zion/Mt. Carmel Tunnel is  a narrow, mile long tunnel along Highway 9 which requires motor homes to go through with an escort. That means that they stop the oncoming traffic and allow the motorhome to drive down the middle, tallest part of the tunnel. There are 6 switch backs getting up to the tunnel which all sounded a little too much to me but when we drove the road on Wednesday we saw that it would be very do-able.

It also gave us the afternoon to see the beauty of that part of the park and stop along the way for a hike on Canyon Overlook Trail. What a spectacular sight when you climb around the side of the wall and look out onto the whole park from a higher elevation.

There were several big horn sheep climbing on the racks as we drove toward Checkerboard Mesa. They seemed completely unaware of all the people stopping along the roadway to photograph them.

Its hard to imagine the first Mormon pioneer settlers coming into the amazing canyons and settling in the valley cultivating the land and developing homesteads, but that's what they did. I think every who visits Zion is awed by the immense beauty of the canyon. The Mormons named the park Zion, meaning a place of refuge, which it truly is.

The Human History Museum near our campground was a great way to get an over view of the park's history.  The exhibits chronicle the early inhabitants of the park with some wonderful photographs and artifacts.

Thursday we took a bike ride along the Pa'rus Trail, wonderful to be riding in the valley looking up at all the formations with nobody else around.

Along the path was this road sign...cracked me up! First time I've seen something like this on a trail.

 In the afternoon we drove back out along the Scenic Drive and stopped to hike the Emerald Pools... it was so beautiful we continued on the trail till we reached the Upper Emerald Pool,

 The pools were at the base of these walls above the tree line

 well worth the longer hike. The pools are formed from water seepage in the rocks which seems so surprising in such a desert terrain. We actually walked under mini water falls

 Paul wanted to try a little rock climbing on the way down...

Our last evening in the park was gorgeous!!! Clouds were coming in with an approaching storm but a half moon over Watchman Peak was spectacular.

 Friday we packed up and made our drive through the tunnel and on to Page, AZ to visit Peggy and new adventures.