Iron Lion Zion

We crossed into Utah with enough time to drive the entire distance to Zion and make our way to Parkdale where we were planning to sleep. As we drove through the higher parts of Zion we saw an amazing landscape of petrified dunes! Within the rocks themselves we could see the changes in the direction of the wind as it deposited additional layers of sediments.

 That night we settled into a pullout to get some rest. In the morning we made our first voyage into the canyon. We woke up early and took a shuttle into Zion Canyon. Our destination was observation point. The hike began near the weeping rock, which is a natural seepage of water through the very walls of the canyon! It drips all year round and allows hanging gardens to grow on the face of the rock during warmer months. Observation Point was a phenomenal viewpoint of the canyon. On top we met a man from Ohio who took some pictures of us. Apparently, someone had decided to get a hair cut while up there because we found a ton of blonde hair strands all over the rocks...interesting! 

We began hiking down and took a detour to the Hidden Canyon. It was a slot canyon that was only accessible by a very narrow trail on the side of the canyon wall. Once inside it, the walls closed in closely about you! There were many points along the wall that were easy to climb and so we played around in the slot canyon for a while before we finally got to the end and saw a small arch near the ground. Chris had a lot of fun trying to climb up different areas of the canyon walls. We took pictures on top of it and under it. Lauren said that she was going to start heading out the canyon and Chris quickly responded, “Don’t go, I might do something cool”. He did not mean to sound like a five year old, but his comment made us both laugh. Lauren waited several extra minutes to take pictures of all the “cool” things Chris did. 

A potato bug! 

We then headed down to catch a bus to the Emerald Pools Trailhead. We hiked up to the pools, which get their name from the algae that grows in them and then headed back to the trailhead. On the way down we spotted some deer that were drinking from the Virgin River and stopped to take pictures. 

That night we walked around Parkdale looking for a coffee or some other warm drink and some small souvenirs. When we found what we were searching for we drove back to the same pullout to sleep. The next morning we headed back to the visitor center to hike to Watchman's point and back to catch another bus into the canyon. We rode the bus all the way to the last stop to see the entire canyon. We did not hike into the narrows because of how cold and deep the water was (chest deep and 40 degrees). We will just have to come back in the summer! 

On its return route the bus dropped us off at the Angels Landing Trailhead and we began that hike. It was an extremely fun hike for us because of the exposure on both sides and the 2000’ foot drop to the bottom of the canyon! We met a man up there who was deathly afraid of heights. He was literally lying face down on a mostly flat section of the trail and inching himself forward, but he kept going and he summited right as we were heading down! Congratulations to him for conquering his fear, and all because his wife wanted him to try! Bravo! On top of the Angels landing a girl asked Chris to take her and her husbands picture. He said yes and quickly realized that it was one of our friends, Amelie, from college. We hugged and caught each other up on our lives and headed down to the trailhead. What a small world! 

After returning to the river valley, we hoped on a bus and went to the Zion National Park Museum of Human History and learned more about the canyons formation and inhabitants. From there we returned to the Jeep and drove back out the park and headed towards Bryce Canyon. That night the temperature dropped below 15 degrees and the inside of the car was full of ice and later water as it thawed! Needless to say it was difficult to get out of bed that morning! We were on the move by 8:00 and headed first to the Visitor Center and then to Sunrise Point to begin our hike. The hike wound through Bryce Amphitheater and was ringed by hoodoo’s, grotto’s, windows, natural bridges, arches, and balancing rocks! It was an incredibly alien and strange environment! The colors were so vivid and as the sun got higher in the sky we were better able to see the bright oranges, pinks, reds, and the darker hues of purple and rust. The contrasts were incredible against the blue sky! 

When we got back to the car we drove to another trailhead and hiked into what is know as the hat shop. It is called this because of the huge concentration of balancing rocks in one area. We finished that day by traveling to all the lookout points we could before the sunset and watched the sun set over Bryce Canyon from the Bryce Point the highest point in the park! It was beautiful! 

That night we drove into a nearby town to get groceries and then spent the evening making our dinner and blogging in a bank parking lot! We slept right outside the town so that the nighttime air would not be so cold; it definitely made a big difference! In the morning we drove back to the park and hiked the fairyland loop. The loop took us through a geologically “new” portion of the park where the rocks where in the process of being exposed by water and slowly eroded into fins. The fins are the precursor to the formation of hoodoos. 

After that hike we returned exhausted to the car and ate a hearty lunch! Clouds started gathering overhead as we drove towards Capitol Reef National Park. We stopped in the town of Escalante to find a café where we could post our blog. We stumbled upon the same one we had been to several years before when we were in Utah for one of our college spring breaks backpacking trips. We bought two beers and because Utah law requires you to buy food when you buy alcohol, a granola bar, and sat down to blog. When we finished we got back in the Jeep and drove until we found a place to camp. We found a small dirt road that wound away from the main road and up towards some gigantic red cliffs and parked the Jeep at the base of the cliffs to make dinner and go to bed.