Tuesday, October 1, 2013

We made the best of it

Knowing that Zion National Park might close on Tuesday, we made the best of the situation and saw as much as we could in one day. One of my plans for the full time RV adventure is to take our time and savor each National Park without feeling rushed.

We have a site at the Zion Canyon Campground (which is not in the park) for a full week.  There is a shuttle that comes to the RV park and takes us to the entrance of the National Park less than 1/4 mile away.  The current and forecast weather are spectacular. But the mess in Washington has resulted in the closure of the park.

Well, we did have yesterday, and this is some of what we saw and did.

Hoping to have more days at the park later in the week, we started with two easy warm up hikes.  The first was to the three Emerald Pools.  Although listed as "Easy" there was quite a bit of climbing up and down irregular rock steps.  I was glad to have my poles along. 


The water in the Upper Emerald Pool was very still and the reflections were crystal clear.  

The trail was in and back, and it was interesting to see the same vistas from two directions and light conditions. 


The mid-day sun illuminated the trees high on the canyon sides.

On the trail to the Pools there was a section where water was seeping thru the rocks and falling like rain on the hikers.


After the Pools, we re-boarded the park shuttle and rode it to the end of the line. There was an informative audio track that told us about the canyon.  Unlike many of these that we have experienced, this one was clear and enjoyable.  We figure if the park reopens before the week is up we will be able to go back and take some of the other hikes.  If not, we have an overview.

Our second easy hike was the Riverside Walk. A mostly paved, level trail that was somewhat crowded. Along the path there were many wildflowers blooming. 


Each flower was tiny, but in mass they were quite colorful.

At the end of the Riverside Walk is the entrance to the Narrows. Although not absolutely necessary, it is recommended you have special waterproof shoes and socks to wade thru the river on this trail.  We did not, so we passed on this adventure. 


I have not tweaked or changed this image in any way.   The sky was that incredibly blue and clear.  

Zion National Park is not the only thing to see or do here.  We hope the Congress will get it together quickly, but if not we will make the best of it.  

15 comments:

  1. I like your positive attitude. I'm glad you got the beautiful pictures you were able to get in that one day and hope you can return soon.

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  2. Glad you got at least one day in Zion, hopefully the shut down will be over before your week is. We walked the Narrows a bit but didn't have the right shoes BRRRR next time we will :)

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  3. Sure am hoping this nonsense doesn't last more than a day or two. You sure got some gorgeous pictures in your one day in the park.

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  4. Beautiful photos. I hope you get a chance to spend more time there.

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  5. Hopefully the park will reopen in a day or two. You did a lot yesterday! We were at Zion for five days in mid-April, 2010, and we still feel like we could see more. We did all of the easy hikes. After taking the tram to Angel Falls, we rode our bikes back down to the visitor center. That was a fun experience!

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  6. Beautiful header! I hope this ends soon.

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  7. Nice quality photos. Been to Zion a couple times & loved it. Kelly & I did that Emerald Pools walk as well. Looks like more water in the pools than when we were there. Think we did part of that Riverside trail as well. Been up to the Narrows & went as far as we could without getting our feet wet. Hope things work out for you & your Zion Canyon adventures can continue. Some pretty strenous hikes in there I hear......

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  8. Great photos! I was thinking about y'all when I wrote my blog post. Maybe this will pass quickly.

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  9. Beautiful, stunning photos.

    Sorry to hear about the closures.

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  10. Glad to hear that you got one day at the park anyway. Hopefully you will find other things in the area to see.

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  11. A good lesson in "go with the flow"....

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  12. Go north on I-15 to Cedar Breaks, north in Virgin up Kolob Reservoir Rd, or south in Rockville on 200E, west to Grafton or south up the mtn.

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  13. I loved the Zion area!We worked there last summer of 2011! 2 hints... 1) have you heard of Grafton? Beautiful ghosttown and amazing scenery along the way. Maybe 12 miles from where you are now.
    http://phunnyfarm.blogspot.com/2012/06/utah-ghost-town-of-grafton.html

    2) Kolob Reservoir Head to the town of Virgin, just before you get there you will see a sign that says Kolob Reservoir and you will turn right. A lot of the road up to the reservoir is in Zion National Park. Amazing scenery! It was along this road that RV Sue camped when she came to visit us!

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  14. Fantastic photos! It is a drag about the closures, but you are a good one for making the best of a situation! Enjoy what you can.

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  15. Oh c'mon... A few inches of water??

    I may be a bit biased in that I just came off a vacation where I spent a good part of it completely drenched.

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