Leakage from a Cluttered Mind

To the end of Zion Canyon

April 8, 2010, 10:19 pm

Ready to go

We were a bit slow getting going in the morning and didn’t get to our parking area until 11:30 am. The girls were happy though, and ready to go.

Our destination was Weeping Wall. The waterfall was pretty, but it was early in the season for all the vegetation and ferns that are usually hanging from the cliff walls. We cllimbed down by the little creek to have lunch.

From there we pushed on via the shuttle to the end of the road and hiked the short trail to the Narrows. The snow melt hadn’t turned the river into a gushing torrent yet, so some folks were braving the 42° water and wading up into the narrows. We were content to watch, although the photos of Mark and Chase look like they’d like to go.

The Virgin River at Big Bend

On the return shuttle trip we stopped at Big Bend and walked down to the river’s edge. Just across the river the cliff-face of Angel’s Landing rose above us and we could see hikers in silhouette on the Angel’s Landing trail.

The late afternoon shuttles back to the visitor center were crowded, but we managed to squeeze in. We had dinner on the the patio of Zion Pizza and Noodle. The view is better than the pizza, although the pizza wasn’t bad by any means. We all felt tired although we didn’t really do that much.

Links
—Zion Canyon 2010 photo gallery

Emerald Pool hike in Zion

April 7, 2010, 9:19 pm

Like yesterday morning, we were slow to get organized. Letting the kids sleep, getting them dressed and fed, making our lunch—it was mid-morning before we got away from the motel. We stopped in Springdale to get a coffee and briefly look around.

Falls at Lower Emerald Pool

We got to the Zion entrance station around 11 just as the visitor center parking lot was declared full. Luckily, we had our choice of roadside parking just outside entrance gate. We walked in—it was just a short ways to the visitor center and the mandatory shuttles. After a quick tour of the visitor center we took the shuttle to Zion Lodge and hiked the Emerald Pool trail to the lower pool.

Enduring the spray and drips behind the waterfall, we started up the steeper trail to the middle pool. Audree just charged up and we left the others behind. Unfortunately, we missed a fork in the trail and hiked a little ways on the trail to the Grotto trailhead. Unknown to us, the rest of the group passed us by at this point, so when we reached the middle pool we waited for a long time for them to catch up. Audree happily played around the pool and wasn’t worried that her Mom and Dad weren’t arriving.

We finally decided to backtrack, but we didn’t find them, so we just waited at the shuttle station. It turns out they had gone on up to the upper pool and returned via the upper trail.

After a crowded shuttle ride back (standing room only for me), we headed for dinner at Oscar’s. It seemed crowded on the patio but we got seated inside immediately.

Links
—Emerald Pools 2010 photo gallery

St. George dinosaur tracks

April 6, 2010, 10:08 pm

So this was our first morning of our vacation to experience how long it takes to get the three kids organized and fed at a motel. Clearly there won’t be any early morning departures on this trip. After leaving Barstow we motored right on through downtown Las Vegas, stopping for lunch at a Chipotle Grill in North Las Vegas. Despite it being a bit breezy, we ate outside and watched the military fighter jets fly over after taking off from Nellis AFB.

Large dinosaur track

A couple of hours later we arrived in St. George and headed for the Dinotrax museum. This museum is built right over the discovery site of hundreds (thousands?) of tracks preserved in sandstone. The site is still being excavated, and new discoveries are being made. We stayed until nearly closing time (we’d forgotten about the different time zone and lost an hour).

After picking up some lunch making foodstuff, we had dinner at the Cracker Barrel and then checked in to the Comfort Inn Zion in Hurricane, a few miles outside of St. George. It was windy—the motel room window was just a little leaky and it howled.

Links
—Dinosaur track museum photo gallery

Leakage from a Cluttered Mind

To the end of Zion Canyon

Emerald Pool hike in Zion

St. George dinosaur tracks

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