Zion Day 2

On Monday, October 28th we decided to celebrate the end of our jobs here in Kanab by going to Zion National Park again to hike some trails and ride the shuttle without Gordo.  This picture is where we enter the mile long tunnel into the park.

We jumped on the shuttle and headed to the Zion Lodge where we followed the Emerald Pools trail.  It was about two miles round trip to the upper pools and it was such a nice day in the 60s.

This is the Virgin River and runs through most of Zion Park and causes lots of problems with flooding and damage.  However, on our day there, it was a pretty distraction.

On our way up the trail, we found this big guy running around on a rock.  He was pretty small for a Tarantula!  Watch out...they jump!

The leaves were pretty!

I find it interesting that science and religion collide here.  The park is named after the area that the Mormon settlers claimed as a haven.  The settlers named the peaks in the area after fathers of the Christian faith like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The park shuttle gave a great narrative about the area.

While hiking, I walked up this small hill to get close to the rock (remember that I have this crazy rock obsession), and found Alien art!  The next picture clearly shows that Aliens plan on taking over the planet...  It is time to stock pile food and ammo in anticipation of a full Alien invasion.

The Emerald Pools were pretty surround by multi colored rocks with waterfalls at various levels.

This was one of the canyons we hiked through.  It was pretty rocky as we made our way up the hill.  I was glad we had lots of water with us.

My great husband who puts up with my madness!

The view from the top!

At one point we were riding on the shuttle and there were these French tourists with us.  The driver was commenting on the Condors in the area and how they almost became extinct.  She quickly shifted to talking about climbers who were on this rock!  The French lady came up to us and asked us to point out the condors.  I had to explain that she was talking about the climbers.  Then the driver began talking about an area called "monkey fingers" rock.  The lady looked at me and asked if we actually got to see the monkeys.  Two words...Language Barrier!

This was a great signed that explained how they carved the mile long tunnel through the mountain in the 1920s.  In the next picture you can see a small hole in the rock.  That is one of the view/vent openings in the tunnel.  Amazing!

Well, I better go and begin getting my supplies in order for the Alien invasion.