Zion to Salt Lake City

Well last night was beyond rough.  Our air mattress got a hole and in no time we were sleeping on the incredibly hard ground.  All I have to say is that the highlights of the night were my many trips to the bathroom.   I couldn't wait for morning and a new mattress ( I guess we are getting a pad to put our tent on too). 

We started the day with a super quick hike to the Court of the Patriarchs named after guys in the Bible.  I can only remember Jacob.

up the trail

the Court of the Patriarchs

waiting for the shuttle again

We made breakfast and packed up our car leaving just before our 11 am deadline and just in time.  It was another scorching hot day.  On our drive we stopped to get gas and there was a random petting zoo.  Katie fed the zebra.

We made great time to Salt Lake City since the speed limit most of the way was 75 or 80!  We even saw snow on the mountains nearby.  It was lovely weather here so we rode the trolley over a few blocks to Temple Square and had dinner while listening to some musicians with no tip jar.

I just sung Dan and Katie to sleep and am looking forward to a wonderful night's sleep on a temperpedic mattress with no leaks!  Tomorrow we head to Idaho.

Zion National Park Day 2!

We made it through one night of camping!  And I only had to get up twice during the night to go to the bathroom- a major achievement for me.  The first time there were a million stars out and the second time the moon was up and so bright that all the stars were gone and I could see my shadow.  The temperature sure dropped at night.  Everything here is a little weird since we are on the Western side of the time zone.  It doesn’t get dark until after 9pm.  This morning we slept in and lounged around a bit before heading out to do the Canyon Overlook Trail.  We actually drove to this hike (usually we take a free shuttle around).  We had to drive through a 1.1 mile tunnel in the mountain that was not wide enough to accommodate large vehicles with two way traffic.  Both times we were in traffic control going through the tunnel.  It was a very slow tunnel, which was little scary for me.  The whole drive had amazing views though.  I was nervous about doing the hike since it was rated ‘moderate’ and had some drop-offs.  It turned out to be an amazing hike.  After a difficult first part the trail was mostly shaded by mountains and ended with an epic view of Zion.

Driving on the Mt. Carmel Hwy to our hike

Katie was a great hiker

Holding up the Canyons

The view at the end

Dan decided to add a little more :/

Our camera can not do justice to how spectacular this view was

After the hike we came back to the campsite.  Katie was exhausted but our camping spot has no shade and is super-hot in the middle (or all) day until about 7 at night.  We had some BLTAs for lunch and headed down to the Virgin River to cool off for a little while.  The river was certainly cool as it was from nearby snow melts.  Katie and Dan both got all the way in but I only made it to my knees.  We river had a pretty swift current so we mostly played on the sandy beach in the shade.  

Then we decided to do the Weeping Rock Trail.  It has the highest ratings of the easy hikes on trip advisor.  It was a really short but steep hike that ended with a rock with water coming out of it.  Not too exciting.  They have a lot of weeping rocks at Zion so I am not sure why this one is special.  Katie slept the whole way up and was more interested in the snack we had at the top than the attraction.  We got back on the shuttle and continued to the Temple of Shinawawa and the Riverside Walk.  We were all pretty exhausted by this point so we walked down to the river, played in the sand a little and got back on the shuttle to head for our camp.  

silly faces at the Weeping Rock

A sleepy little girl

Waiting for the Shuttle

The Riverside Walk- Katie climbed up here all by herself

love the river

Dan and Katie went biking while I tried to find a little shade to rehydrate and rest.  I was hurting by this point so we may have over done it.  It is hard not to when you want to see everything.  Katie is also completely exhausted since it is too hot for her normal 3 hours naps.  Last night we told her she had to pretend to be asleep when the Ranger came by so he wouldn’t make us go home.  Hopefully it works again tonight.  Tomorrow we will go to the Court of Patriarchs for a short hike and some pictures and head back to our campsite to pack up and head to Salt Lake City.

Heading to Zion

We left Vegas this morning, stopping at a little dinner just off the strip called Mr. Mamas.  Katie and I split pancakes and hash browns seasoned with oregano.  I’ve never had them that way but they were quite tasty.  We were only in Nevada briefly before we popped into Arizona for a bit (we cut the corner).  We got stuck in traffic in the middle of nowhere making our easy short day about 40 minutes longer.   

We made it to Utah!

We arrived to Zion in the afternoon- later than I thought we would.  Apparently they change time in Utah. Our campsite is just inside the park.  We are surrounded by huge mountains and epic views, but lacking any shade in the heat of the day we knew we needed to get out of our camping area.  We did sneak into the campsite behind us since they had daytime shade and weren’t around yet.  

Katie wanted to live in the squirrel locker

 We chose to hop on the Zion Shuttle and venture over to the Lower Emerald Pools hike.  The shuttle felt great with the wind blowing through the windows and luckily when we started the hike the mountains were high enough to offer a nice amount of shade for us.  The hike was pretty short- like .6 miles, but Katie wanted to explore every rock and tree root so it took us quite a while to make it to the destination.  We had great views the whole way.  

 After the hike Katie fell asleep on the shuttle and we checked out the bookstore and decided it was time to make dinner and blow up the air mattress.  Sliced cantaloupe, grilled corn, pork and beans, and hamburgers filled us all up for the night.   

Katie and Dan went out to ride her bike around and hopefully find the area of river near our campsite that we can go swimming in tomorrow when the heat comes back.  

Amazing Animal Sightings: Turkeys, Vultures, Ostrich, and lots of Deer.  Katie’s favorite are the lizards.