Kim with antelope.

Kim with antelope.

Riding into Zion.

Riding into Zion.

Three Patriarchs.

Debbie and Donny.

Today was our full day to go exploring in Zion. There was alot to see and do, much more than we would have time for, and more importantly, much more than we would have the energy to do. Most of the people were going to take the free shuttle bus to tour the park, but Debbie, Kim, and I decided it would be best on bicycle.

Our first stop was just a mile down the road, at the human history museum. After reading all of the exhibits we sat and watched the short film about the park. It was all good stuff, but we were now ready to see some real stuff, not just pictures of stuff. We then rode down the road a bit and then took some time to get some posed pictures of Kim and I riding into the park.

Our next stop was at the Lodge. We arrived at the same time as a busload of German tourists, all of whom wanted to use the restroom at the same time as we did. Way too crowded here. We left the lodge and found another set of restrooms near the shuttle stop. Much better now.

We left our bikes locked up and headed out for our moderate hike for the morning. We were going to check out the Emerald Pools. We had decided not to do the hike up to Angel's Landing because it would have been too hard to do in addition to The Narrows river walk. The tour map said 5 hours for the Angels Landing hike, but later in the day we got reports that it was more like 2 to 3 hours. The next time I'm in Zion, Angels Landing will be the first thing on my list.

Kim rock climbing.

Donny rock climbing.

Kim and Deb climbing.

Donny and Deb.

There were supposed to be three pools, Lower, Middle, and Upper. There were two trails, an easy one to the Lower pool and a moderate one to Middle and Upper. We took the moderate trail and after quite a bit of hiking we came to what must have been the Middle Pool, but I could not see any pool at all, just a small stream flowing across. Kim started to explore up the stream and Debbie and I followed. We thought that we were on the trail to the Upper Pool, and after awhile we were sure that we had found it. It wasn't much of a pool, but compared to the size of the Middle Pool, it was bigger. We all had fun playing in the water.

Finally we came back downstream to the Middle Pool again and followed the trail some more, only to come to a junction with a sign pointing to Upper Pool. We went that way to check it out and found that we had not been to this pool after all. We came up to a very big pool, and deep also. Everything was perfect except for one sign that we saw. "No Swimming". What a spoiler. Why have a nice pool if we can't even go in it? I was very glad that we had gone exploring up the stream, as that turned out to be much better than this pool that we could only look at.

We looped back via the Lower Pool, which was also disappointingly small and "No Swimming". But this did have a trail that went along the base of a cliff and under a waterfall. The wind was swirling, and so it was neat to stand there and watch the waterfall move around, hoping that it would come your way and give you a soaking.

The Narrows.

River walking.

Back at our bikes again, we rode on up the canyon to the end of the road. This last hike was to be our main attraction for the day, but we had put it off until the afternoon, as we were told that it can be very cold early in the morning. We were going to walk The Narrows. From the end of the road, there is a one mile paved trail which goes along next to the creek. Finally it just ends, and there is nothing left but the creek with cliffs on both sides.

Happy to be here.

Happy to be here.

Chatting with Wilson.

And with Bob.

Waterfall.

There was a sign that said "Place walking sticks here", and around it was a good selection. I found nice light ones for Debbie and Kim and then found a sturdier one for myself. We looked up stream and could see lots and lots of people all walking in the water with their walking sticks. This was going to be good, as I couldn't wait to get wet.

They say that you can walk for up to ten miles up stream. We walked for quite awhile, but I don't think we made it more than a mile or so. We would often see others from our tour coming back, and so we would stop and chitchat. I would also stop and play in the water. On some stretches the water flowed good enough so that I could lay down and float along. This was the life.

Floating down the river.

Non-shy Mel.

As I was floating, Melanie, a cute blonde from Germany who was on our tour, happened by and saw me. She told Kim and Debbie that she wanted to swim also, and so while I was watching from the water, Melanie put down her pack, then changed into her swimsuit, not being shy. I liked Melanie. I got a picture taken with Melanie, but it was with her camera.

Because of all of the hiking and river walking, there just wasn't enough time to work on my puzzle, as the candles we set up in camp did not provide enough light. But we played Uno instead, so it was ok.

Totals for the day were 20 miles, with about 7 miles of hiking.

Go to the next day.