This was a very busy day! We got up a little before 7 and had a lovely restaurant breakfast that the Best Western Zion Park Inn included in the overnight hotel cost. Then we parked right outside the entrance to Zion and walked across to the shuttle buses, which run all day long through the park, because it is now partly closed to cars, and therefore not nearly as overrun with cars as it is with people. The ride had a taped guided tour with it, which was fun to listen to as we rode up to our first stop, the Grotto. We had picked this one because we decided to go partway up a very scary trail which starts with just steep switchbacks and fabulous views up to Scout’s Lookout, but then continues as the “Angels Landing Trail” along a very steep ridge with drop-off cliffs on both sides and CHAINS to hold on to. I had initially said I didn’t want to go up any of it, but we did go up that trail for about 50 feet. Then I decided I needed to go back–not because I couldn’t have gone further forward, but because I knew I would get very scared on the way back DOWN the cliffs along the chains. I did have a moment where I didn’t know how to get further down, and almost panicked, but Mark below me and the person above me guided me a little and I was okay. But going the other way, across from Angels Landing on a broad trail up the next peak was a much better idea.
The hike back down was very pleasant, and neither of us was really tired after 2.5 hours, which shows in what great shape we are now! We went the mile-long walk from Grotto to Zion Lodge and had an early lunch there; then we hiked up to the Lower Emerald Pool, a very cool little pond that is fed from a small waterfall above. Unfortunately, we couldn’t see the Upper Emerald Pool because the trail link was closed and we would have had to hike another way in, but it was beautiful, anyway.
We then took the bus to the very end of the driveable road, called the Temple of Sinawava, and hiked along the Virgin River toward the Narrows, where the trail crosses the river and where only those (many, many) hikers prepared with waterproof shoes etc could keep going . But the hike to that spot was a very nice trail, and it had multiple access points to the river, with kids and grownups splashing around. Earlier in the day it had been pleasantly cool and overcast, but by this time, about 1 pm, it had gotten pretty hot, so I did decide to test the water and go swim in shorts and tank top, which was wonderful. Mark was a total sweetheart and sacrificed himself, staying dry and keeping our various electronic equipment, specifically the cameras, safe, while I went in. But swimming (the water wasn’t even particularly cold) was one of the highlights of the day! Once I had dried out a little bit, we took the bus to the Weeping Rock stop / trail, which was another really short trail to another site where the water running down steep cliffs creates these great hanging gardens with lots of fabulous vegetation. That was our last stop (again, just a little half-hour hike), and then we took the bus back out of the park, got back to the car, and then drove out of the park — only to drive back IN to it about 30 miles down the road, where a 5-mile road into the Kolob Canyons area leads back into the park for a little bit. We drove the 5 miles along more stunning cliffs, took another little 1-mile roundtrip hike to an overlook, and then made our way out of the park after watching some pretty impressive thunderstorms close in on the mountains in the park. We drove the remaining 20 or so miles to Cedar City, found a perfectly fine Motel 6 with Wi-Fi and breakfast, had a lovely dinner in the more expensive motel next door, in a restaurant called “The Bard” (I couldn’t figure out why at first, until the many brochures flying around made me realize that Cedar City features Utah’s Shakespeare festival. But that night’s shows were not that interesting, and we were too tired anyway–but at least we ate in a place with pseudo-Renaissance ambiance before we called it a night.