Day 13 Sept 20 in Zion

Braun and I did our walk I think it was about 2.8 miles cuz I went to the entrance of Zion national Park. I forgot to put on my walk. Paul and I got to the park by 7:45a it was already quite busy and  the parking lot was full. There was no ranger at the walking entrance again today so nobody checked cards or collected fees. They are potentially losing a lot of revenue that way. We saw a deer and her gain munching grass at the entrance plaza.

Our plan is to take the bus to the end which is the Temple of Sinawava and hike up the narrows until you're stuck walking in water then turn around come back to the Zion Lodge and take the trail to the emerald pools we'll do the lower one the middle one and maybe we'll get up to the upper one.

 We hiked up the trail called the River trail to the end where the trail to the Narrows begins.

Use

Starting here you have to cross the river multiple times and wait a way to get wet. It's been sprinkling on us the whole way. We saw deer and turkeys. I had my 10k steps before we finished our first hike. 

        Now to go to stop number 6 to start the climb up kayenta trail to Upper Emerald Pool.

We saw a tarantula on the way. 

Lower Emerald Pool. 

Middle Emerald Pool. 

We made it to Upper Emerald Pool along with 100 of our friends. It was a difficult climb, sort of like Cowels Mountain but with rocks and sand instead of rock and decomposed granite and 3 miles long.  We rested a bit then started down. We have heard several tourists asking if there is an easier way down.... We don't think so.

We made it back and I'm at 20,000 steps. We went back on the trail that goes to the lodge. Part of it is cement, part trail, less scrambling over rocks but steeper than the Kayenta trail.

   We took the park bus back to the visitor center, walked out of the park and had lunch at a nice little restaurant, took the city bus back to Motel 6. The doggie was glad to see us. We rested and napped, then I showered and was hoping to wash the dog. He refused to go in the shower, he even squirmed away from Paul. We could not let him win, the gauntlet had been thrown down, so we took him outside and washed him with the spray hose. He was not happy, but he feels and smells so much better.  Next project is laundry. The one at our campground got washed away in flood a year ago so we have to walk a half a mile or more to town where there's a laundromat. It's 85°.  I have totalled 26k steps.