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Today I had a little more trouble getting going. I finally got out of bed at 9:30, when my tent got a little too warm for comfort. It was kinda crazy because when I got up to go to the bathroom at 8a, it was still pretty chilly.
I got my stuff together at a leisurely pace, then headed up to Zion Lodge to do the Emerald Pools trails. There’s the Lower, Middle and Upper, which combine for about 2.5 miles and about 200 feet of gradient. I started with the Middle, which put me on a ledge looking out over the Lodge area. It was a gorgeous view, but faaaar down. The Middle Pools are the pools and creek that feed the waterfalls that feed into the Lower Pools. Then I headed to the Upper Pools, which are fed by a waterfall from a cliff face about 1000ft up. It was a nice place to rest and the highest point on my hike. Later I headed back down to the Middle Pools trail, which then feeds into the Lower Pools trail. The waterfalls were amazing…there were two or three, but not a heck of a lot of volume, so they were delicate and blew in the wind.
I climbed down and went to the Lodge for lunch, then took a brief nap on the lawn under a giant oak tree. My feet and ankles felt a bit better after the rest, so I went to a few places I’d been the day before to take more pictures. I went back to check out the climbers at Angel’s Landing. They had doubled their height from the day before…I think they were trying to make the top today…probably about a 1500-2000ft climb. I went to the Court of the Patriarchs and climbed up to the viewpoint to get a better look. Apparently those peaks are around 6900ft tall…sheer Navajo sandstone.
I think I got some better pictures today…it was definitely a gorgeous day…about 80 in the sun, with a nice wind. The wind here is really neat. You can hear it build in the canyon, almost like a tornado is supposed to sound…like a freight train. But it seems to weaken as it reaches the mouth of the canyon and dissipates a bit. I almost like Zion better than the Grand Canyon…it’s smaller (in area), more remote, greener, more rugged. The GC is so big and magnificent, but there are SO many people and so much infrastructure, it sort of takes the wildness out. But it was an experience to remember.
I debated about what to do for dinner, since I feel like I don’t smell the best right now. I finally changed clothes and baby-wiped myself down and went into Springdale for pasta. On the way to the restaurant, there’s an elk farm. I can’t believe I didn’t notice it on the way into the park yesterday, but I guess I was too focused on making it to the campground and getting a site. Anyway, this place is right in the middle of Springdale and they breed elk, longhorn cattle and buffalo. It was the coolest thing. I bought a couple of bags of feed pellets and proceeded to get slobbered all over by the elk and cattle. They were all pretty docile. In the back pasture, there were some younger elk. The pasture’s sprinkler was going off, and the elk were running and playing in the spray. It was so cute. When I went to feed the one bull, he was in the middle of the pasture…when I shook the feed bag, he started running toward me, bucking and prancing. I guess that was his good food dance.
I leave for Bryce Canyon in the morning…all I really care about is getting a shower But I only have tomorrow there, so I need to maximize. Thursday, I head for Moab for three days. I am psyched about that because I get to stay in one place This trip has been so cool so far…hard to believe I only have about another week out here before I begin to make my way slowly east. After Moab, I’m thinking about getting up very early and making a detour through the Black Canyon of the Gunnison… I’ve heard that is really neat, but it’s not REALLY on the way. I guess I’ll play it by ear, as usual.
G’night!
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