Trip to Zion…Park

On Thursday morning, cs and I headed off to Zion…literally. The weather was a bit overcast. By the time we got to Santaquin it was a winter storm. Going through the mountain passes at Scipio, Cove Fort, and Beaver were white knuckle driving experiences— especially with the semi trucks jockeying in and out of traffic as though the roads were dry and clear sailing ahead. I hate when they pass you by and throw all of that slush/rain on your windshield and instant panic sets in because your windshield wipers can’t move fast enough to clean it off and you’re blinded for what seems an eternity. We counted at least six mini-vans that had spun off to the side of the road. [Side note: We also spotted three Passats, but that exclusive fourth one didn’t make an appearance.]

We made the obligatory stop at the Cheese (no cake) Factory in Beaver and got some squeaky cheese. Good stuff…but only for a day…after that it loses its squeak…that’s why you have to eat and enjoy it all in a single day…then pay the consequences for two or three days after…but that’s another story.

We passed through the booming metropolises of Toquerville, La Verkin, Virgin, Rockville, and arrived at our destination: Springdale. My conference started at 12:30 p.m., but our room wasn’t ready so we couldn’t check into our room. cs enjoyed the comforts of taking a nap in the Jeep until the room was ready at 3:00 p.m.

The conference reconvened in the morning and got out at Noon, then we were free to head home. We decided to do some sightseeing while in Zion. We went to the park and headed to the Temple of Sinawava parking lot. On the way there, we saw several rock climbers waaaaay up high on the cliff walls. cs wanted to know how they were going to get down…I wanted to know how they got up there. We embarked on a two mile round trip hike that followed the Virgin River along the bottom of narrow Zion Canyon. On the way I saw this.


It reminded me of another trip long ago, when we went and saw the Hoodos in Goblin Valley.

We then went on a 1.2 round trip hike to the Lower Emerald Pool. The trail goes behind the waterfalls.

By then, we both “felt” that we had enough physical exertion for the day. We drove up the canyon to go through the one mile tunnel that connects to Mt. Carmel Junction. I told cs to take a picture of the tunnel entrance…and so she did…through the window. As you can see the Bluebird of Paradise (or was it that South Dakota pheasant?) did indeed fly overhead and blessed us with its presence…that’s the tunnel entrance…above and to the right.