Zion National Park Fun

This past weekend, Mike & I took a trip to Zion National Park. It was a much needed relaxer after a tough winter. We journeyed down with Karen & Kevin. The real reason for going was so that Karen could participate in a 10k in Ivins (part of St. George). We had decided that due to the late hour of arriving, to spend the night in Mesquite and then get Karen to St. George by 7:50 AM. We got to the hotel around midnight Utah time, set the alarm, bunkered down and really slept well. We woke up to Karen realizing that we had 10 minutes to get to St. George to meet her brother. It all turned out OK though. We made it the St. George in record time, they had too many runners and so the buses didn't all leave by the 8:30 deadline and Karen did awesome on her run!

We made it to Zion around 2 and found the perfect camp site. We set up our tent and then headed over to the visitor center. The original plan had been to hike Angel's Landing, however due to the late hour, we decided to hold off on that hike until the next day. We did the Emeral Pools hike (which is very beautiful) and the Weeping Rock hike. It was a beautiful day and only got a little chilly every now and then.

We got back to camp and were able to watch about 10 deer in the field right next to us eating. It was fun to sit there and watch them. They were really close and didn't get spooked at all. We then had some 'dang' good chili (Bear Creek, yummmmmmmm) and bunkered down to bed.

Sunday morning, we woke up to snow. Out the window went Angel's Landing. No way was I going to do that hike in bad weather (for those not familiar with it, there are portions you are walking on a precipice holding onto a chain...not for the faint of heart). We decided to do the River Walk, which isn't really a hike but more of a walk. It was beautiful. We would definately suggest anybody do do this 'hike' while in Zion. We then did the Lookout hike. This is a very fun hike, Karen and Kevin neglected to inform us that there is a portion where you are walking under the cliff on a bridge with a huge drop below you. However, we would suggest to make sure when you do this hike to make sure you aren't hiking in a cloud. Instead of the beautiful overlook, we just saw CLOUD. It was fun though and I even got hot enough that I shed all of my winter gear.

Overall, it was a very fun trip and Mike is counting the days until we can go again. I definately put the veto on June or July though, can you imagine 100+ degree weather to do hikes? No thank you. I will take the snow any day over that!