It’s after 9am when we wake up and thankfully Sandy is feeling much, much better. Still we decide to take it very easy today, which sadly means we have to cancel our reservations to hike the infamous Subway.
View from the motel:
View from the motel:
We start off with an amazing breakfast at Oscar’s Café. Sandy actually eats all her food and declares it the best bacon she’s ever had. Hooray for feeling better! My Flapjack sandwich consisting of scrambled eggs with bacon between two cheddar pancakes is pretty amazing too.
They don’t allow you to drive your own car into Zion National Park to avoid traffic congestion so there’s an excellent shuttle system to take you to the park, and another to transport you between stops inside park boundaries. There’s a stop almost right by the motel and we don’t have to wait long before one arrives.
Inside the park we get off at the second stop, Canyon Overlook. Here’s a nice introductory view from a bridge over the Virgin River.
There’s an easy river access right near the shuttle stop so we walk down the water. Picture of the watchman taken right near the water’s edge.
There’s a short, steep walk to a viewpoint at the next shuttle stop called the Court of the Patriarch. It’s named for this rock formation:
Since we’re only doing easy hikes today we decide to tackle the Lower Emerald Pools trail starting from the Zion Lodge. It’s a nice hike to a set of waterfalls cascading into a brown pool. You can actually walk all the way behind the falls for a better view.
Rainbow at the bottom.
It’s only a short hike to the Middle Emerald Pools so we decide to tack that one on too. This trail proved to be slightly more challenging, but still easily doable.
This set of pools isn’t as nice as the first one, but still worth the walk. Here’s me posing near the edge and yes, I’m barefoot because I had to walk in the water again. Btw, thanks for the shirt mom!
It’s while we’re there that we see a sign for the Upper Emerald Pools trail. This trail too is slightly more challenging, but the rocks are easy to navigate and with a few well times breaks it isn’t too tiring. It’s pretty hot in the sun so when we find the end of the trail cloaked in shade and with a slight mist coming off the falls it’s a welcome change.
You can tell this part of the canyon always stays cooler by the chunk of snow left on the rock near the foot of the falls.
You can tell this part of the canyon always stays cooler by the chunk of snow left on the rock near the foot of the falls.
On the way back down I make a ‘slight’ navigational error, which placed us on the Kayenta trail, instead of the short and easy Grotto trail I assumed it to be. If I’d looked at a map I would’ve known we were on the wrong side of the river for it to be the Grotto trail, but alas … and so our take-it-easy day starting to slowly involve more and more hiking.
Now on the plus side, the views from the Kayenta trail are amazing
Why aren’t more people raving about this trail?! It’s so nice. Sandy was holding up really well luckily:
The trail actually ended at the next shuttle stop so we just hopped on and continued to Weeping Rock, where centennials old water squeezes its way through the rock. There’s a large waterfall right next to it and we saw several people get completely hosed by a sudden shift in the wind.
The roads here are red like the rocks. Doesn’t it looks nice? Also, notice the fake arch in the middle right of the picture.
We get off at Big Bend, but don’t feel much like exploring so we grab the next shuttle to Temple of Sinawava, where we decide to end the day with a walk along the aptly named Riverwalk. It’s now getting windy and cold because the canyon walls are starting to block the sun, but we make it all the way to the end. In the summer this is the start of the Narrows, where you walk through the river, but it was closed today because the river was flowing too fast. The ranger said it might actually not open until late June, because of the large amount of snow they received this year.
Squirrel along the edge of the trail.
Return to the beginning of the trail. I liked this rock because it looks like a face to me.
We have dinner at the restaurant in the Zion Lodge to spend some time until sunset. The food is mediocre, but the view of the mountains is worth it and dessert was pretty tasty!
When we’re on the shuttle back the driver suggests the Pa’Rus trail. The ranger we’d talked to earlier said it was a great place to watch the sunset, so … yes, we ended up hiking 8.5+ miles today. So much for taking it easy!
It’s a paved easy trail winding back and forth across the river.
Suddenly we spot three mule deer in the distance.
Just look at those ears! How cute are they. What a perfect end to a great day!
Hallo darlings,
What a trip.
I like the way they've built the motel and the surrounding buildings. It blends in beautiful with the surroundings And the view is breathtaking.
No thanks Cat, it looks fine on you. I like the Kayenta trail, there is a lot of variation in the vegetation. I thought everything would be more rocky.
I think I see the face to, protruding forehead and sharp nose?
The mule dee are cute. Love and hopefully see you tomorrow again on internet,
Love and xxxx Joeve