Day 4 - Tuesday, July 28 - Zion National Park

We spent the entire day exploring Zion Canyon. Zion is a deep valley carved by the Virgin River with beautiful sandstone cliffs climbing straight up for thousands of feet on both sides of the river. After breakfast, we headed up the canyon on the shuttle bus.

First stop, a short hike along the Virgin River to Emerald Pools. This is a group of pools fed by small waterfalls. The pools were very pretty, and the views along the hike were spectacular.

Next, we decided to take a short horseback ride to a formation of towering rocks called The Three Patriarchs. The ride along the river was spectacular, although we both had sore butts and stiff knees afterwards. From here, we took a short hike to the Weeping Rock. From the porous sandstone cliff face, water continuously seeps out. The vegetation was especially interesting here, more like a jungle or swamp then a desert.

We continued up the canyon and stopped for a look at a huge cliff called Angels Landing. Over a thousand feet above we could see hikers walking the trail to the top. This hike is very narrow with a thousand foot drop down a sheer cliff on both sides of the trail. Crazy people.

At the end of the shuttle line, we got out and hiked about a mile to 'The Narrows'. This area of the canyon has soaring cliffs on each side of the river that are so close together that there is no other way to walk up river except in the water.

After stopping for a yummy dinner at the Zion Lodge, we got the car and drove toward the park's east entrance through a mile long tunnel cut through the cliff. We drove past swirling sandstone structures to the bizzare Checkerboard Mesa. After dark, I watched a ranger presentation on the stars in the night sky, then we both went fast to sleep. We stayed at a refurbished cabin from the original lodge that was small but very comfy.

In the middle of the night we were awakened by a torrential rainstorm, complete with thunder and lightening.