12/5 - Emerald Pools on a 100 Degree Day

This was our first of 2 full days at Zion Nati0nal Park. It was quite a hot one, but we didn't let that deter us from doing a couple of the major walks.

Zion is different to the 2 parks we previously visited (Grand Canyon, and Bryce Canyon) in that it runs a shuttle (bus) system that is compulsory. That is, a normal visitor cannot drive their vehicle into the main ("scenic") portion of the park. Rather you leave your car at the Visitor Centre (some other options exist)and then catch a 2-carriage propane bus to the particular stop (there's over half a dozen) that you desire (different trails start from different stops).

We got off to a relatively late start, partly due to getting up late, but also because we needed to shop for our lunch (dip, fruit, etc.), which we would be carrying with us. Due to the temperature, and again based on guidebook information we made a walk selection - this one of the "Emerald Pools" - 3 pools at different heights that fed into one another - the lowest receiving its water via a waterfall. Their colour due to the moss/algae growing in them. The choice was a good one - not too demanding physically,but with a fair bit of ascent/descent, some good views, wildlife (squirrels, frogs, lizards), and the cooling water. Maria and the kids stayed at the middle pool, while I headed up to the upper pool. Unfortunately for them the upper pool was the largest and most beautiful and the closest to the claims of Emerald. Still they had a good time at the middle pool, including a water fight, and that is where we took lunch.

Despite that cool-down,by the time we had returned to the trail-head (across from Zion Lodge) we were very hot again. Taking the lead of others we decided to take a wade in the fast flowing and relatively wide (but shallow at that point)Virgin River (that was responsible for carving the valley) - a chilly 50 fahrenheit or so. We saw one guy take a rather spectacular face-plant when traversing the slippery rocks in the water.

Moving on we decided to do the "Weeping Rock" walk, relatively short and famous as a location where water seeps out of the sandstone cliffs (seepage and leeching of iron-oxide through the sandstone layers of different permeability is responsible for graduations in colour and the emergence of water such as here - some layers are not permeable to water. It is also said that it takes several years for water to move from the top of a cliff to the bottom in this fashion), and many varieties of fern ("...more than on Hawaii...") can be found. Indeed, this park is far more vegetated than the previous two we had visited.

By then it was time to think about dinner and we headed back into town (its about a 30minute ride from the lodge back to the visitors' centre) and grabbed some Chinese. It felt very similar to Australia, though we did have to ask specifically for chopsticks.

After heading back to the hotel to make some calls home for Mother's Day, we drove back out of the park to "Utah Trails" (the Native American site described in an earlier post) in the hopes of catching a performance. Unfortunately it was cancelled, so after a 30-minute conversation we headed back to the park and a shuttle up to the Lodge so we could catch one of the nightly ranger presentations; this one entitled "Zion, Marbles and Mars". The ranger, a woman by the name of Autumn, enlisted Zoe and Grant to help and they took to it like a duck to water,even earning an appreciative clap from the 60-odd member audience. The presentation was wide-ranging and interesting, emphasising the scientific mission of the park. Autumn also instilled in the kids the desire to be "Junior Rangers", even providing them with the necessary paperwork.

Emerging from the lodge at 9:45 we were concerned about possibly missing the last shuttle back down to the visitor's centre. It was exceptionally dark, there being no moon, and no external lighting (or activity). What was most breath-taking though was the huge mountains that surround the valley. On a dark night like this, they could only be seen as great jagged black holes in the sky - while overhead stars could be seen, the presence of these massive mountains could be "seen" as a perfectly black emptiness to the sky, "cut-out" in the shape of the mountains. I've never seen anything like it before and doubt I will ever again.

Shortly the last shuttle arrived, its headlights breaking the spell of the night. Back at the Visitor's Centre we found our car in the large dark parking lot, and headed back to the hotel; awed by Zion.