Friday, May 13, 2016

The Zen of Zion

Watchman Campground, Zion National Park

We owned Zion today. From early morning til late at night we biked, hiked, explored and dined. This is our 5th time here and it's still one of our top three National Parks. It was so fun to re-explore Zion thru the eyes of a first timer.

 

 

Knowing we had a big day ahead of us we dined at Camp Chez Gary and Linda. On the menu was fresh eggs, toast with homemade jam and coffee. Yes, Linda is still wearing her Jammies, pretty cute!

 

 

 

Mid morning we biked the Pa'rus Trail. There were quite a lot of flowers still in bloom. The Virgin River was flowing pretty strongly so it made for great visuals and background noise.

After the ride we shuttled to the Natural History Museum to learn a little more about the park.

 

We took 4 separate hikes today. Here's the gang at the Weeping Wall.

 

 

 

 

Here we are on the Riverwalk at the start of the Narrows. We couldn't walk upstream due to flash flood warnings. It was blue skies and 90 degrees so go figure. In reality the water was rushing pretty strongly and was pretty darn cold too.

 

 

 

 

Linda and I stopped to soak our feet in the water. This water was freezing! (Note my feet aren't actually IN the water at this point).

I love Linda's reaction as she waded into the Virgin River. She got a little more feet cooling than she had bargained for.

 

 

We also walked the Grotto Trail and did the Emerald Pools

We got back to the Lodge, exhausted, sweaty and hungry, just in time for our dinner reservations.

 

 

 

By the time we biked back to our campsite we had about 15 minutes to throw our shower stuff in backpacks and bike out of the park to a local outfitter that provides showers to campers. Whew, made it just in time. Love this picture of the gang, late at night, dripping wet and exhausted, but clean, well fed and quite content.

A good time was had by all.

 

 

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