Back to Zions

Thursday morning we left early to get to Zions. We were able to get a parking spot and catch the shuttle.  We started with the Emerald Pools hikes.  The lower pool has an easy trail, but the bridge got washed out so you have to go around and down and then back up.  It was hard, but not as bad as the day before.

Right off the bat the view was amazing.

It started out cold, but as we got higher it got hot. I'm really glad we started early.

I'm so glad we went to Bryce and Zions.  They are very different and beautiful in different ways.

The hike had lots of different terrain. Sometimes we were going up and down stairs and sometimes we were climbing over rocks. The hike went down into the Lower Emerald Pool. It was hard not to think about the fact that I would have to come back up.

I was excited when we saw some Fall colors on the hike.

There was a waterfall at the Lower Emerald pool that you could hike down to and walk behind.

The colors were beautiful.

There were a few little waterfalls off rocks.

After the lower pool we hiked up to the middle and upper pools.  The lower pools were definitely the prettiest.

The pools were pretty depleted.  When we got to the upper pool it was covered in shade and cooled off about twenty degrees, it felt so good.

There were a lot of people coming up the trail as we were going down, I'm glad we got an early start to beat the crowds.

After the emerald pools hike we did the weeping rock hike.  I didn't take any pictures since I did that one last time. 

After that we did the river walk trail.  I couldn't help taking pictures even though I have a ton from last time we did it.

The end of the trail is my favorite, it is stunning.

It was a nice cool down after the harder hike.

We soaked in the view for a while and then headed back to the shuttle to go back to the car.

This cactus looked like a turtle.

We stopped at the gift shop and then headed back to Cedar City.

We were able to shower before the girls came over.  Mel and Amarie picked up dinner for us while Caitlyn and I stayed back and played a game.  Caitlyn loves Rummikub and asked me to bring it down so we could play.

After we ate our Cafe Rio we all played. After that we visited and watched funny videos and laughed a lot.  It was so fun to have this time with our girls.