Utah Day 3

Riverside Walk

Plant along the Riverside Walk

Middle Emerald Pool

Monday May 26^th, 2008

We spent the day with Stephanie and Jonathon and the boys in Zion doing some hikes and walks. It was raining in Cedar City but once we got to the park it was beautiful again. We took the shuttle to the end of the park and did the Riverside Walk first. This is a two or three mile round trip trail that’s just packed with people. The trail takes you up the Canyon alongside the Virgin River. It was awesome to see the many varieties of plants and flowers growing in this part of the park, it’s quite the scenic trail.

Here are some of the other trails we did:

Weeping Rock: Short trail up to the parks largest hanging garden. You walk up about a half mile to the top where you can see a bunch of plants just hanging off from the cliff above. The sandstone here is soaked with water and it just drips out of the rock, hence the name..

Emerald Pools: This a pretty fun and really popular hike in Zion. Going up to the top is nice but pretty much everyone in Zion does this so it’s pretty crowded up there. Once you get there its pretty amazing though. The lower and middle pools were pretty impressive too.

Court of the Patriarchs: This doesn't really count as a hike, its more of a little viewpoint where you can get a good look at three massive peaks in the park that they’ve dubbed the Court of the Patriarchs. This was our last stop on the shuttle before heading out for the day.

Speaking of the shuttle, I loved the fact that they had this available. Up until recent years you could drive through the park and just park at different lots but now you’re required to ride the shuttle in peak seasons. I guess the place used to be packed with cars and bumper to bumper traffic but now it all flows really well and the park remains relatively quiet even during the busiest of times. I loved the shuttle!