Zack and I went to Zions Thursday May 15 and came home yesterday (we were done so we thought we would call it a trip.) This vacation was a relaxing one. We decided that we would do what we wanted when we wanted and go with the flow. That started the first day, we were planning on leaving at 5 am but got on the road around 10 instead, we slept in. Which was desperatley needed at least by me, this past week was my first week of school and it was a long hard week, but I got through. We reached Zion about 3 or 3:30 and set up camp them went on our first hike/walk. He hiked the Parus trail, which is the only paved trail that allows bikes and pets. We walked from our campground, the South Campground to the Human History Museum 1.7 miles ( I think) unfortunatley the museum was closing in 5 minutes, we never made it back. Oh well. We actually went to bed early that night with the intention of getting up early and hitting some trails before it got too hot but again we slept in and got a later start about 9. We decided to hike to the Emerald Pools, and Court of the Patriarchs Friday because Saturday was supposed to warmer, and we thought we should hike the Narrows because they tend to be cooler than the other trails. But anyway, the Court of the Patriarchs was a real short walk with some cool views of the cliffs; Abraham, Issac, and Jacob. The Emerald Pools were nice. My favorite was the Lower Emerald Pool because of the waterfall. The Upper and Middle Pools were nice too but there was less water than I envisioned. The Lower Emerald Pool was also nice because the water would blow towards you and was very cooling. Once done hiking we went to Zion Lodge and walked around and looked in the gift shop. I met a nice lady from Oklahoma on the trail to the pool and ran into her again at the Lodge we talked while we were both waiting for our husbands. Later than night we went back to the Lodge to have dinner at the restuarant, we figured why not we only live once. It was nice, Zack had Shrimp pasta and I had the pork loin. We were waiting for a ranger program to start about moutain lions so we played a game of chess. Neither of us had played in a long time but we had a great time. The program was nice and I learned some things. I did not know that cubs tend to stay with their mothers for a year and a half to two years, and that Zion National Park is believed to have five to seven moutain lions in the park. On Friday we got up and hiked the Archelogical Trail. It is the spot of an ancient storage building but there was no evidence that we could see. So we left and hiked Weeping Rock. My favorite trail of all. It was so pretty up top. The views were wonderful and I loved seeing the plants growing out of the rock while getting wet. It was nice to be cooled down. We hiked the Riverside Trail to where the Narrows begin and saw some really pretty hanging gardens. This was my next favorite trail. This trail had RiverAccess which was nice and we walked along the river for a while coming back. Zack also made a new friend on this hike. A chipmunk came right up to him, while we were leaning against a wall, wanting food I suppose. We had planned to hike the Narrows from there but had learned the night before that they were closed because the water was running to quickly, and the trail is expected to be closed until June. After we got back to camp and had lunch we realized that we had seen everything we could see that we had planned on and deceided to head home. We were both tired and ready for a nice shower. We left Zion about 4 and got home around 9. Overall we had a good time and I am glad that I tried camping somewhere new.
