31. Thursday Sept. 11--Zion National Park

Remember 9/11.

Post script from yesterday...the temperature registered on the car thermometer which reads road temperature was 117 degrees F. Even if the air temp was """only""" 103, it was damn hot!!

Lee now has a sore neck and the end of Thursday. That comes from swiveling from side to side rapidly while riding the shuttle to take in the incredible sights of Zion National Park.

But first,.....

Left Las Vegas around 8:10 after deciding to chance taking I-15 North and risking the detour through the "Valley of Fire" Nevada State Park. What a marvelous detour!! We saw scenery that we would have missed otherwise. Absolutely breathtaking! The was the first park in Nevada and was dedicated in 1935.

After being detoured off I-15, where are we headed?

Red rock formations all around us

The 'beehive'

Spectacular!

We stopped on a side street in Rockford Utah for another car lunch only because it was the only place we could find that had any shade. Temperature had reached a breezeless 93 degrees.

We reached Springdale, Utah (the town at the entrance to Zion) around 2:00, registered at the Best Western Zion Park Inn (imagine that?), and parked the car without unloading. Zion National Park does not allow vehicular traffic into the park to visit, just to transit the park to other areas.

Just outside the hotel was the local shuttle which took us to the visitor's center where we took another shuttle on the scenic ride about 45 minutes up into the canyon. We rode to the last stop without getting off in order to see where we wanted to get off and explore. Good move.

 The bus driver narrated very nicely as we rode to the end. We agreed that "Weeping Rock" and the lower falls of "Emerald Pool" were the two hikes we wanted to take.

This Zion National Park has to be seen to be believed! The canyon walls rise hundreds of feet in the air and the roads are right next to the rock.

The Weeping Rock hike terminated at a location where water squeezed out from rock layers fell to the ground many feet below and watered a fern growth and garden. Nice to see in an area otherwise that seems so dry.

Water drops falling from the cliff face

Area where water comes out

After Weeping rock, we took the shuttle down the canyon to Lower Emerald Pool, named for the algae that grows in the pool. The round trip hike was 1.2 miles but it was very interesting for a couple of reasons: wildlife.

Tarantula alongside the trail

Mom and baby mule deer 4 feet off the trail

The happy hikers on the trail.

Back to the hotel about 5:45, got the 'stuff' into the room, had dinner next door (not that great) and to bed early. We will be transiting the park tomorrow to head for Brice Canyon and another day of adventure!

Final observation from Lee: draft beer by law can only be 3.2 ABV (alcohol by volume). Rats! That is not fair but this is Mormon land.