Saturday, October 1, 2011

Zion Canyon

 

It was a little cooler today so after a quick breakfast and a quick walk with the dogs, we headed to  the Zion visitors center, to catch one of the free shuttle buses that go  to the various trailheads,museums and points of interest.The shuttle buses run around every fifteen minutes and you can get off and on as many times as you like.

IMG_2358

We got off the shuttle  at the Zion Park Lodge and walked the  Grotto Trail.  Zion Park is amazing, every vista is inspiring. The sheer rock faces with orange- red- gold  horizontal lines through them. My camera certainly doesn’t do them justice.

 

From the Grotto Trail

IMG_2330

IMG_2335

We crossed the Virgin River and took the  Kayenta Trail to the Lower Emerald Pool.

 

Kayenta Trail

Views from the trail

 

IMG_2340

A small slot just wide enough to walk through.

IMG_2341

We started to meet quite a few people who had got off the shuttle at other end of the trail.There were amazing waterfalls that fell over the trail.

Water Fall at Lower /emerald Pool

IMG_2349

If you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see the tiny hole the water is spraying out of.

IMG_2350

The lower emerald pool was almost dry and  surrounded by people so I didn’t get a picture. By eleven it was getting quite warm and quite crowded so we hopped on a shuttle and went back to the campground to check on the dogs. Later we went into Springfield, a little town outside the park gates and had lunch here.

IMG_2356

Lunch was pretty good and surprisingly not expensive, everything else in the town was though, I guess it’s to be expected in a tourist town that relies on visitors. The rest of the afternoon was warm so we stayed around the motorhome. We did have visitor who came for lunch.

IMG_2361

There are several more hikes we would like to do so we have decided to stay another day, before moving onto Bryce Canyon.

Jean

2 comments:

  1. nice day for a tour!..love your lunch visitor!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I remember that Emerald Pool Trail well and we did manage to get up to the third pool. They didn't have those buses running in the Park yet when we were there so were able to drive everywhere. I remember sitting outside the nice Lodge having coffee under the big trees which were all in colour because it was Autumn. You can find Zion Canyon in our 'search' box. Glad your spending another day. We had hoped to do more hiking in Zion but I hurt my knee on the Emerald Pool trail and that was the end of my hiking for awhile and we had to move on.

    ReplyDelete