Day 6- Zion national park- 6/26/14

We left early this morning for the 2 1/2 hour drive to Zion national park. One fun thing is the 1 mile tunnel you have to go through to get here. It's scary and fun at the same time. We entered Zion and set up camp at watchman campground. This is our third time here so it was all familiar territory. After setting up we headed to the river at our campground. The girls discovered the best thing ever in the river- it provided hours of free entertainment and peace and quiet for mom...tadpoles!  They caught tadpoles for hours and then I had to drag them away for our first hike. We got on the Zion shuttle and headed for the emerald pools hike which is about 3 miles round trip. There are 3 pools and we made it to the upper pools.  The pools are so pretty and the water is seaping from the high canyon walls which have ferns and greens growing out of them. The lower pool has water dripping down onto the trail which is refreshing. Although we hit a cold spell today and it is only in the 80s and overcast. We got separated from noah for a short time on our hike as he accidentally took another trail and didn't hear us call him back. Thankfully he showed up just as we made it to the upper pool!  After our hike we had delicious soft serve ice cream at the lodge. Then back at the campsite it was back to the river for the girls while the boys made dinner. After dinner the boys went to see a movie at the Zion theatre (only shows 1 movie!) and the girls worked on their jr ranger books. We met up at a late evening ranger program about the stars. Whew- that was a lot today!