Zion National Park

First of all, let me say that there is no way I can do justice to the day I had today. It was amazing and exhausting; I sit here writing this so I can get it all down when in fact, all I want to do is go to sleep.

If you don't know Zion is on the Western edge of the Colorado Plateau. There's a lot one could say about it, but guidebooks do a better job. Suffice to say that the canyon has the highest sandstone cliffs in the world. So it's very dramatic. Here's an example on the left.

I stayed in Springdale, the town right outside the park, and they have this great shuttle system that takes you to the park, and then a shuttle in the park to take you to the canyon sites. It's all very convenient. I wanted to do a hike called the Emerald Pools, which I heard was good and moderate in strenuousness. It was a good morning hike. The pools are three connected pools moving up a cliff that create oasis for plants and animals. They're very pretty, and happily, there weren't a lot of people yet. Here are two: the lower and the upper.

By the time I was coming back down the valley, a ton of people had shown up. Zion is very popular. As I was leaving, a tourbus of Italians showed up. And that was my experience for the rest of early part of the day. I went to Weeping Rocks and the Riverwalk, all very nice and interesting, but there were so many people I felt like I was in a herd. Don't get me wrong: I was enjoying myself, but I also wanted to do some hiking away from people.

It was about 2 p.m., and I was trying to decide what to do next. So I went to a park ranger. I love our National Park Rangers because they always have interesting ideas, and I think they often eyeball someone and decide what they think the visitor should do. Anyway, I went and talked to this guy, and he looked me over and suggested I drive away from the canyon up to another section called Kolob Terrace. It's a section of the park that is essentially at the top of the sandstone cliffs, about 4000 ft above the valley floor. (Disclaimer: I might be wrong about the actual number of feet). It's 10 degrees cooler up there. He told me that if I took this one hour hike, I'd get to this section of the park where basically the whole park is laid out before you. So that's what I did. It was a great idea. It was peaceful, cool. There was nobody there, and the view at the end was great. Some pictures are on the left.

Finally, I went down to eat at the Bit & Spur, which is a Mexican restaurant: I know, I don't get the name either. The food was amazing. I had this seared swordfish on a ragout of white beans, heirloom tomatoes, sweet potatoes and asparagus, with a cole slaw on top. YUM!

It was a great first real day to this trip. Tomorrow, I go for another hike in Zion right outside the east part of the park, and then I drive to Bryce for some hiking around there.