A Visit to Zion

Exploring another beautiful national park in Utah.


Quite a contrast from the delicate hoodoos of Bryce to the rugged formations of Zion. Another contrast is the weather. Bryce is refreshingly cool (higher elevation), and Zion was still quite hot at times.


The reddish color is similar...or should I more accurately say that it's mostly burnt orange around there?

The T-shirts we purchased from Bryce and Zion were actually dyed using the natural stone coloring of the area--just like the big boulders in the picture above--and they match our Longhorn shirts pretty well, so... I'll just call it burnt orange. Hook 'em! =)


The roads are even the same color as the surrounding landscape of Mesozoic-aged layers.

Bighorn sheep

We went on a hike that was supposed to be an ambling little jaunt to Lower Emerald Pool.

taking a snack break

Bonus:
We ended up on a much more strenuous hike that led us to ALL of the 3 pools!


Mary Kate patiently waited to see if a little frog would hop onto her leaf at the Middle Emerald Pool.


Her virtue paid off.


A tiny little amphibian


Kids playing at the upper pool

Way down in the corner of the picture

Water and rocks are kid magnets.


Rocks that are IN water are just too much for any child to resist!

river at our campground

In the morning we hiked to the Narrows.


A chilly wade/swim jaunt.


Hiking back from the Narrows
it warmed up


Would you believe that, on a hike in Zion, I almost literally ran right into a grade school classmate I haven't seen since 5th grade? That would be...er, about 3 decades ago. It, indeed, happened!

She looked just like some recent photos she posted of herself on Facebook, so I blurted out, 'Anita!?'

Totally validates Facebook for me.

This weeping rock has some OLD tears.

O-L-D

Some of the water Jimmer collected in his hat and splashed over his head is said to be up to 800-1200 years old coming out of that rock.

Yep, kind of hard to believe.


Sandstone is like a big sponge...except it can't be squeezed, so the water S L O W W W W W L L L Y makes its way out when it finally hits harder stone, like granite.


We're not talking pioneer days old. This stuff is closer to biblical!

And it's on tap at the visitor center for free. There isn't plastic-bottled water for sale in this green-thinking park, so bring your own containers and fill 'er up. You'll need it!

Now leaving...and going down. Way down.