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.....