May 27, 2011 Zion National Park

We are very excited today since we've both had Zion National Park on our to do list for a long time. A couple of things you need to know about Zion--you don't drive to the observation points as they have an excellent shuttle bus system, and unless you're a cliff climber you don't see Zion from it's heights but rather from the canyon floor. You become part of the park as opposed to looking down into it. We had to leave Tipper back at the trailer since dog's are not allowed most places in the park. We took the Riverside Walk which follows the Virgin River. It's amazing that you look at a cliff face that's a couple miles away and your eyes track up the face and then you get to the upward limit of your eyes and then you have to crane your neck to see the rest of the way to the top. Now that's tall. Along the river
there are cliffs with moisture seeping out of them and growing on bare rock are Columbine flowers and grasses. The second hike we took was to the Lower Emerald Pool. That was neat because you could walk under an overhang where the water spilled into the pool. Quite a place.


Can you see the climbers in the first picture?