Zion Day 2 10-10-11

Posing at the Visitors Center

Lower Emerald Pools Trail

Upper Emerald Pool

Weeping Rock- you can see the water dropping from above in the background

Today we started off the morning with a big breakfast. We then went off to do our first hike of the trip. Zion has a great set up as a National park and we took advantage of some of those today. At the visitors center at our campground they have a water filling station so we filled up our packs and then we took the park shuttle which takes you all along the canyon floor to various stops where you can get off and hike. So today we took the Emerald Pools trail. We started with the lower pools trail which is a hike through the canyon but it is quite shaded with foliage. Then you arrive at this area where the rocks are literally leaking water from above and you walk under the rock with the water falling in front of you. The kids loved to get wet and walk through the mud. We continued on to the Upper Emerald pools trial which was a little steeper but worth the climb. It ends at this pool of water surrounded by the beautiful red canyon streaked with black. The kids had fun walking around on the rocks and going out onto sand benches. We had a picnic lunch there while taking in the view. Then it was back down the same way we came up! The hike ends up at the Zion Lodge so we did have to stop and get our usual ice cream… even though it wasn't that hot it still tasted great. We went back on the shuttle and made a stop at Weeping Rock which has a small walk up to this beautiful rock formation that has water seeping out of it. I love seeing all of the plants growing out of the sides of the rock. We took some photos and then headed back down. Then it was back to camp. The kids were so anxious to go in the river…even though we heard from a ranger that the temperature was only 48 degrees! Well, they did it, all of them swimming in the river except Noah and they had a blast! It is incredible how kids are so immune to the temperature of water. After the river Tim and I went for a trail run on the Watchman trail right off of our campsite which was fun. Then we had a nice dinner of burritos at the Renwick's camp…it was so yummy and very filling! We then did campfire with smores and just hanging out. At campfire we were led by Megan in the Coke or Pepsi book which just asks lots of fun questions…she was quite the task master in moving us along with the questions and she made it a lot of fun. It was a great day in Zion!