Wednesday, April 30, 2014 (Hurricane/Kolob Canyon, UT)

Today was another early start for us.  Our plan today was to drive about 30 minutes away and hike the Taylor Creek Trail in Kolob Canyon which is the northern part of Zion National Park.  This part of Zion National park is very lightly visited.  We arrived at the visitors center around 9:00 a.m.  They didn't even have a gate shack to take visitors money, they just counted on everyone's honesty.  As we were checking in at the visitors center they had a notice on the board that they have had several mountain lion sightings lately.  Yikes....we'll have to watch out.

We got to the trailhead and we were the only car in the parking lot.  Wow, that's a first.  It also was very chilly again this morning, it was 45 degrees when we started out.  It was a beautiful day for a hike, the sky was so blue, the rocks were so red and the trees were so green.  It was very peaceful and we took our time exploring the two homestead cabins along the trail.  We were about halfway through our hike before we saw any hikers.  As the day progressed, we started seeing a few more, but nothing like yesterday's hike in Zion or when we were at the Grand Canyon.  I'll let the pictures tell the story of our 5 mile hike today.

Here was another mountain lion warning sign at the start of the trail

Our hike today followed Taylor creek, it was a very shallow creek and the trail crossed the creek numerous times

Entering the Zion Wilderness, notice I have a walking stick, we don't usually hike with walking sticks, but since we were the only ones on the trail this morning and with the mountain lion sightings, we decided a stick was in order.

This rock was very sparkly but it didn't show up in the picture.  Notice Rich's stick, he's got the stick for whopping the mountain lion on the head, while my stick was more of a sharp, jabbing type of stick.  I think we're covered.  =)

We are headed up into those pretty red rocks in the distance

This was the Larson cabin built in 1930.  The front door was obviously new and you couldn't go inside because it was locked but it was fun poking around and checking it out.  I have always enjoyed old log cabins and the stories they could tell......

inside of the Larson cabin, picture was taken through the back window. 

The Larson cabin had a pretty impressive view out the front window with those majestic red rock formations.

This picture is for my mom who collects heart rocks on her walks.  If you look closely you can see the heart shaped pool of water.

It was amazing to see the trees growing up out of the red rocks

We were amazed at all the trees up this canyon, they even had viney maples

This is the Fife cabin which was 1.88 miles into our hike

checking out the inside, again they had the door locked and a sign asking people to stay out

inside of Fife cabin, again picture taken through the back window

This sign was above the inside of the back window.  In case it is hard to read, it says "Arthur Fife Cabin built in 1930 with sons Rowland + Ray

The canyon is getting narrower

Double Arch alcove taken from a distance.  It was pretty amazing, it's hard to tell in the picture, but there were two distinct ledges



Interesting black stains on the rock, this one looked like a young woman bending over to the side, with her long hair bending down.....what do you see?




Rich and Kelly in front of Double Arch Alcove



After our hike we drove the 5 mile scenic road to the top.  It didn't show up in this picture but there were little pockets of snow on the sides of this rock formation.

More red cinder road, blends right in with the red rock formations

Our hike took 4 hours, was 5.1 miles long and had an elevation change of 450 feet.  The hike as I mentioned followed the creek and didn't feel like we went up 450 feet, the terrain was pretty up and down, but with no big ups or downs, not at all like some of the trails yesterday or in the Grand Canyon.  When we got back to the truck, there were 18 cars in the parking lot.  Sure didn't seem like we passed that many people.  The temps had warmed up to a balmy 51 degrees but it was nice hiking weather, definitely not too warm and it was pretty breezy out again.  This hike really reminded us of Oregon with the exception of the red powder sand and all the red rock formations and the cactus here and there. 

We've enjoyed our time here in the Zion National Park area but tomorrow we move on to the Bryce Canyon area.  We are excited to see that area as the rock formations are totally different than here in Zion.  Stay tuned.......

Tuesday, April 29, 2014 (Hurricane/Zion National Park, UT)

Brrrr it was sure chilly when we got up this morning.  Our plan for the day was to head to Zion National Park so after our breakfast we headed out.  We left around 9:00 and arrived at the parks Visitor Center around 9:30 a.m.  Parking was no problem though we did see a sign that said the parking lot was usually full by 10:00 a.m.  Then you have to park in Springdale and ride a shuttle into the park. 

We weren't able to take Gracie with us today because they don't allow pets on the shuttles and the shuttles are how you get to the start of the hiking trails and viewpoints.  No vehicles are allowed past the Zion Lodge.  We hopped on a shuttle which quickly filled up and rode it to the end of the shuttle stops called Temple of Sinawava.  The shuttle ride was narrated with interesting facts along the way.  The shuttle stopped at seven stops before we arrived at the end of the line.  A few people got off along the way but most everyone stayed on to the end, they had the same idea we had.  The scenery was amazing, the park had a different feel than the Grand Canyon, for one there was a lot more greenery and the Virgin River was running along side the road for most of the trip.

Our first hike was Riverside Walk which was a round trip hike of 2.2 miles and only a 57 foot elevation change.

This friendly squirrel was posing for pictures

Notice the hikers on the right at the base of the cliff, they were starting out to hike the "Narrows" which is a 9.4 mile hike and most of it is hiking through the river.  We saw several folks along the trail with waders and water shoes.....brrr I think that this hike would be better on a hot day.

After our hike along the river we hopped back on a shuttle and headed for our next spot called Weeping Rock.  The shuttle system is really quite handy, you never have to wait more than 10-15 minutes for a shuttle to show up and it sure keeps the roads clear.  I think it would be hard to drive anyway, everyone wants to be looking at all the different rock formations, it probably is a lot safer and cuts down on accidents.

The Weeping Rock hike was the shortest hike of the day at only .4 miles round trip.  Before we started the hike, we walked down to the river and had our lunch.  It was very peaceful, the beautiful scenery and the sound of the water.  It made us homesick for Oregon.  =)

The road was red cinder, kind of like the cinder roads they used to have in Central Oregon

Weeping Rock was covered in wildflowers and maidenhair fern, it was very pretty

Can you see the stream of water dripping off the rocks in the center of the picture?

The canyon was filled with cottonwoods and ash

Our next shuttle stop was Zion Lodge.  We were going to hike the lower and upper Emerald pool hike which was a 2.2 mile roundtrip.  When we first started the hike, there was a school field trip of youngsters along the trail.  It was a little noisy but you could tell the kids were having a lot of fun.  We were able to pass them by and after the first pool we no longer could hear them. 

Shuttle bus

Waterfall at lower pool

Lower pool waterfall

distant view of waterfall at lower pool



trail to middle pool



Rich at one of the middle pools

Upper Emerald Pool waterfall, the water was just barely coming over the top of the ledge and turned into mist on the way down.  The top of the rock was so high up you can't see the pool below.

On our hike back from the upper pool, we found a second middle pool

Water from middle pool falling down to the lower pool

the trail takes you behind the lower pool waterfall and if you look close you can see the water falling in the middle/center of the picture

Here is the waterfall against the blue sky, it was a long way up.....

After we got back to the shuttle stop and looked at the time we decided we should head back to the visitors center and our truck and head home to Gracie.   As we were riding the shuttle Rich shot these pictures out the window near the court of the Patriarchs shuttle stop.  The rocks are called Abraham, Isaac & Jacob.

We had a beautiful day of hiking, the temps were in the low 60's, perfect hiking weather.  With all our hikes combined we only hiked about 4.8 miles.  Our first day in the Grand Canyon with Gracie we hiked 8 miles, so today was really a pretty easy day.  We stopped at the visitor center on our way home to check out some ideas for tomorrow.  Stay tuned.....