Zion National Park

No pictures today - I'm on a very slow computer in the Lodge and don't have the time to download a photo. Busy day yesterday. Left Boulder and drove through Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument - summit was 7600 ft. Beautiful views on scenic byway Rt. 12. About 90 min later we arrived at Bryce National Park. We viewed the movie that told how Bryce came into being and made the typical stops at viewing areas. Fantastic views of this unusual canyon from all vantage points. Just a quick trip, though because we were headed to Zion for the night.

Took a longer way to Zion than expected because we decided to see Cedar Breaks National Monument. We'd heard there were terrific views there, but we were sorely disappointed as we drove up the mountain toward Cedar Breaks. On both sides of us were thousands of dead spruce trees. When we arrived at Cedar Breaks, we learned that, back in the 1990's, the Spruce Bark Beetle came into the area and wiped out thousands of acres of spruce. Complete mountainsides of trees were dead. The only living spruce were the shorter, younger ones. What a shame! We decided it wouldn't be too picturesque to eat our lunch in this area, so we moved on.

Matt spent part of the time in the car deleting duplicate photos off his new digital camera. He'd taken 304 pictures and, after deleting, was down to 237!!! yeegads! Every time we say, "Boys - look to your right/left," he would snap 2-3 photos. How funny!

On the way into Zion, we saw several cars pulled over and, to our delight, we found a herd of buffalo grazing by the side of the road. A great find ... and, of course, more photos. We arrived at Zion National Park around 4:30 and I had no idea the actual lodge was in the bottom of the canyon! I thought we'd be on top, looking down like most of the other canyons. We drove on a winding canyon road for miles before reaching the bottom of the beautiful canyon. On the way down, we saw Big Horned Sheep on the mountainside and got great pictures. Drove through a tunnel carved through a mountain in 1925 that was 1 mi long. When it was carved, cars weren't as big as they are today, so they could have 2-way traffic. Now, they have 1 way traffic so big RVs and SUVs can get through.

We were able to park at the lodge b/c we were staying there, but everyone else had to park somewhere else and take the shuttle in. In 2000 they started a shuttle service here and everyone must take it to get around. Saves a ton on CO2 emissions and it seems to work very well. We took a tour of the park, then returned to the lodge for a nice dinner. On the walk back to our cabin, we saw mule deer come right out of the hillsides and Matt got more good pictures of them closeup!

After many days of traveling and hiking, Matt wanted to sleep in ... so, I volunteered to be the parent to stay back with him. (Wasn't a tough decision - I felt the same way!) Dave and Ash got up at 6 am and took a 3 1/2 hour hike. They went up to Hidden Canyon and walked an incline of 850 ft. To get to the canyon, they traversed faces of the cliffs with 500-600 foot dropoffs. The path was no more than 3 ft wide, but did have some grab chains on the wall. The stone was sandstone and it was slippery in parts. Some of the paths angled away from the wall and were a bit tricky. It was a neat walk and they both had a wonderful time. They got into the canyon and walked back into it for about a mile. After scrambling over 5-6 rock dams, they had to stop because they were too numerous and too high. They also walked over to Weeping Rock which was a natural spring leeching through a thousand feet of sandstone. When the water came to shale it started moving sideways until it came out the cliff face. It was called a "Rainforest in the Desert." Very cool, they reported.

Matt and I packed up the car, iced down the cooler and happened to arrive at the Lodge when they were getting off the shuttle bus. Perfect timing. Off to the Grand Canyon today (North Rim).