We had yet another early start with a 6.30am alarm. We got up and dressed and headed to the breakfast area in the hotel. There was a great selection of hot and cold breakfast available. Back in our room we packed a bag with stuff for a day of walking, then headed out to catch the Springdale bus to the Zion visitor centre. It was colder than we expected this morning as we doubted the shorts and t-shirts while everyone else had long trousers and jumpers. Onto the free zion bus and our first stop inside the park was bus stop 5 where we took the mile long walk to Lower Emerald pool. We had hoped to walk on from there but the trail was closed due to rock fall.
Back to the bus stop and we took the next bus up to the end of the trails and took the riverside walk to The Narrows. This walk is a mile and a half each way. We found a rock to sit on and watched all the serious (mad) hikers get ready for their Narrows hike. This needs shoes suitable for hiking through water. The first stage is to cross the river when I believe the later parts are walking up through the water (probably quite cold as the cliffs are high, the gap narrow and not much sun reaches the bottom).
We had some of the trail mix snack we had brought with us before heading back along the river.
The next bus dropped us off at stop 7 and we took the short uphill walk to weeping rock. We had hoped to walk back to the higher emerald pool from the other direction but unfortunately they had closed the whole trail. We took the short Grotto Trail to the next bus stop and then headed back to the hotel. We had been walking for about 5 hours so after a short rest (and a video chat with Mum and Dad) we decided to drive out of the East entrance of the park on the scenic road. More WOW's.
Beautiful road to drive, zig zagging up out of the canyon, through a mile long tunnel then through rocks out the other side. We left the park did a u turn and returned the same way. We did have to stop to let a herd of mountain goats cross the road!
Dinner tonight was a Thai restaurant we had spotted near the visitor centre at bus stop 2. The buses are great for getting up and down the canyon.
Back at the hotel Keith settled down to watch thursday night nfl and i sat out by the fire pit listening to a loud American (possible drunk) young woman whilst writing up today's blog. Life could definitely be tougher! 😉
Zion is another beautiful park, again with its own unique beauty being mainly up through a long canyon.
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