I think Zion may be the most beautiful park we have been to yet! On our third day, the shuttles were finally running so Denny got to look up at the mountains instead of driving.
Zion was only about 50 miles from Snow Canyon, our last park.  So, in the last week we only drove about 50 miles which was a nice break. Denny calculated that we walked more than we drove!

On the way to the top of Watchman's Peak overlook.

This tested Denny, lots of drop offs. We just stayed to the inside and were rewarded with awesome views at the top!

A lovely little rock chair on the trail

Our view from the overlook at the top of the trail

The entire Zion Canyon was formed by one small river, the Virgin River. I think if you dip your feet in the river, you become a virgin again.

Re-virginization in progress.... I may have lost a few toes.

It got down to near freezing in the park at night and warmed quickly to the mid-sixties when the sun came up. So, jackets in the morning, t-shirts in the afternoon. Although less hardy folk wore jackets all day.
The second and third day, found us back at our little brew pub for more stout and pretzels and even dinner one night. We will miss them!

These mountains are majestic!

Must be afternoon, I'm in a t-shirt!

We hiked up to the Emerald pools, some small ponds way up the mountain. It is amazing to see a small oasis up there. There was even snow and a small waterfall! We had t-shirts on with blue jean shirts over. We kept taking them on and off. Cold in the shade, hot in the sun!

Above the waterfall

Denny at the Emerald Pools, the small waterfall turned to mist on the way down and the wind kept spraying it on us!

These three peaks, all over 6000 feet are named The Patriarchs. They are named for biblical figures Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.










After hiking most of the easy and moderate trails, it was time to leave and seek out more creature comforts, such as electricity! We left via a tunnel on the east side of the park. It was built in 1920 before huge motor homes. We are not huge but still met the requirements for paying a fee to have the tunnel traffic stopped so we could drive down the middle. The road before and after the 1.1 mile tunnel was full of curves and switchbacks. Beautiful, but a bit unnerving when on the outside edge!

The tunnel

One last photo on the way out of the park, Checkerboard Mesa has vertical and horizontal fissures, which the snow helped to highlight!

Checkerboard Mesa