Zion National Park

I'm so excited to be able to do this post!! In case you've forgotten, or didn't read the other post, our memory card decided to quit working after it had at least 150 pictures on it from our trip to St George. My dad had a co-worker who was able to retrieve the pictures from my memory card-- thank you to my dad and his co-worker for working on this for us!!!

Remember the squirrel post? Here is the squirrel reaching for food!

Our favorite hikes at Zion are the Emerald Pools trails, and the Riverside Walk. Our first day we hiked to the Upper Emerald Pool. There are actually three Emerald Pools, the trails are all connected so if you get to the first pool and aren't too tired, you can continue on to the middle and then the upper pools. Last time we did this hike it seemed much longer and harder than it did this time, I think that was due to the fact that it was about 10 degrees hotter last time we went.

This is the lower pool (you can't get near the water at this pool)

This is the middle pool.

And this is the Upper Pool.

The trail to the upper pool is a very rugged trail, it's rocky, dusty, and steep, and it's also very hot-- there's almost no shade along the way. The very end of the trail you can get some shade from some trees and rocks, and then you walk into this open area and it just feel like you're walking into an oasis, it's amazing! Cliffs surround this beautiful pool of water and it just takes your breath away. As you walk into the water there's no rocks under your feet, it's just soft sand.







This is a look up at the surrounding cliffs. We stayed at the Upper Emerald pool for a while and just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery.

And here we are on the way back down.

We took a different trail down, and saw lots more cactus than on the way up.

Ethan didn't like the different trail we took down, it didn't have much shade. We had also just finished off our water and just wanted to get to the bottom to refill our water bottles.

We got down and decided that we were done for the day, so we drove back to St George and went swimming.

Our second day at Zion we did the easy Riverside Trail. The trail ends after 1 mile, but you can continue walking down the river and eventually you get to the "narrows". You have to make sure that you don't go on a day where the forecast calls for rain though, the narrows are extremely prone to flash flooding.

The walking sticks really helped a lot, some of the rocks in the river are super slippery and the walking stick just gives you a little extra balance.

Most of the water was fairly shallow, but parts of it went up to Julia's neck.

As you're walking down the river there are some areas off to the side where you can walk on dry land, other times the river is the only place you can walk.












We had such a great time at Zion, we'll definitely be going back again!