Zion!

This spring we went to Zion National Park at the end of May!  We stayed in St. George, about 45 minutes from the park, and the weather was perfect!  Warm, but not overwhelming!  

Bob and Johnny at the entrance!  We parked just outside and walked in because there's an awesome shuttle system within the park that goes between all the trails!  The national parks were also doing free passes for active duty military for a whole year, so we got ours and that was a definite bonus!  Now we need to decide which other national parks are drivable from Utah and plan some more trips!

One of the first trails we hiked was up to Weeping Rock, where springs drain out of the rock and plants grow out of crevices in the wall.  Johnny and I are underneath a big rock overhang in some nice shade! Water drips all around this area, so we were cool and wet, a welcome relief as it was already in the 80's by this point!

This was the Kayenta trail to the Emerald Pools

Beautiful views!

Such a beautiful place

We saw a lot of other families out and about on every trail and here we passed a couple who kindly took our picture :)

It's not every day you see a flowering cactus!

More beautiful scenery

Johnny was so good and loved the views from the backpack!  Our friends Amber and Daniel lent us this pack and it was nice to keep Johnny up and away from your back a bit more so neither of you got as hot or sweaty, but it wasn't as comfortable as the Ergo or the Trekker.  The other bonus is the tent that goes on top to give him some shade, although sadly we didn't have that part with us.

The trail

We counted how many lizards we saw for a while... I think we stopped after 30 because these guys were everywhere!

Look in the middle of this pic, toward the bottom and you'll see another one :)

Near the lower Emerald Pool

Nice waterfall at the lower Emerald Pool

Johnny spent much of the trip like this--too much fun and no formal nap time = sleeping on the go!

I love bridges!  This is at the bottom of the Emerald Pools trails back near the shuttle

This never got old--such an amazing place!

He's a pretty talented baby and drank his bottle on the go too! It was so hot that we went through a lot of beverages, including 3 L of water just in our Camelbacks!  Johnny became a pro at drinking from the Camelback too, and still thinks it's one of the most fun things to do!

These views are from the Watchman trail

Johnny actually seemed to like this view better--he could see everything around us!

This was one BOLD squirrel!  They have signs everywhere NOT to feed them, and one very memorable picture was everywhere, of a man's hand with TONS of stitches in it after being bitten badly by a squirrel he was feeding.  Apparently, those are not too effective, because this little guy has surely lived a cush life of tourists feeding him!

Nana Sampert will appreciate the Holland America bag there :)  Bob saw this little guy eat a few peanut butter filled pretzels Johnny had dropped, and he climbed right onto our packs hoping to find more, even though Bob was right there!

The Narrows is a long day hike, but leading up to it is a really nice paved path called the Riverwalk, with a nice stream that you can wade in and Johnny's little feet appreciated the ice cold water!

He was pretty content to watch everything from the pack!

More water coming out of the rocks and vegetation growing straight out of the vertical walls!

Still enjoying the Riverwalk

Don't worry, he's ok.  It was just REALLY hot and he was cooling off.  We saw him move after a few.

On our drive home we got Johnny this sweet hat--looking good little buddy! :)

His excitement for the new hat was no match for his tiredness!

Zion was amazing.  Such a beautiful place!  The red rock, the great hiking, and the whole trip was just wonderful.  We'd love to come back again and are glad we finally made it to one of the top places on our list of things to do before leaving Utah next year!


I know I'm a bit behind on the blog, but bit by bit we'll get there!  Hope you're all having a great summer, and it was WONDERFUL to get to see so many friends and family when we were home in CDA last week!