Zion National Park

This year I turned 40. I wasn't too excited about it, but there's no way to stop the course of time, so it came around whether I wanted it to or not.

My wife wanted it to be a special birthday for me, so she started planning a surprise trip to Zion National Park. Unfortunately, she didn't think to close out her browser window, so I sat down to the computer, and was greeted by a website proclaiming the best things to see when visiting Zion. That kind of blew the surprise.

After that, it was a non-surprise trip to Zion. I had to switch with someone to get the Monday off, so we could have a three day weekend. On Saturday, we drove all day to get there, had dinner at a pizza place, and then hit the hotel's pool.

The kids seemed to be more excited about the pool than anything else on this trip. We could have gone to a pool just up the street from our house and they probably would have liked it just as much. Personally, I was more excited for the hot tub. Later, that would be my undoing, but that's a story for later in this post. After the pool, we went home, took showers and got into bed. We had a big day planned for the morning.

Breakfast the next morning was provided by the hotel. It was surprisingly good. My wife had said beforehand that all the reviews said the breakfast was great, but I was skeptical. I'd seen enough totally lame continental breakfasts in hotels to know that breakfast from a hotel was nothing to look forward to. But this time around I was wrong. It was really good, and they had pretty much whatever you could imagine available. Day one I had eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, fruit, a muffin, and probably more stuff that I'm forgetting. The second day, I had more of the same, as well as a freshly cooked waffle that I made using their batter and waffle iron. The reviews definitely didn't lie.

As soon as we were done eating, we got in the car and headed to the national park.

Once within the park, we hopped on the shuttle bus. In Zion National Park automobile traffic is prohibited in a majority of the place. At least for the more popular summer months. For Little, this may have been the neatest part of the trip. He got to ride on a real bus!

We tried to pick the easier hikes, since we were bringing a two-year-old along with us. We did the Emerald Pools hike, which was a really nice hike. The trail wasn't too strenuous of a climb, and it was shaded for the majority of the walk as well. The scenery on the way was really gorgeous. Here's a panoramic picture that I took on the walk, I think you have to click it to really get the full effect:

But my favorite part was the fall leaves that were everywhere, falling like snow all around us.

The main attraction was not the Emerald Pools though. Sure, there were Emerald Pools, but they were nothing more than a couple of uninteresting ponds. Above those pools, the trail went under a cliff where a waterfall dribbled down onto our heads. 

It was pretty cool. Here's a shot of it where you can actually see the water. It was such a dribbler that it was really hard to get a picture that showed it well.

At the dribbling falls, we had a decision to make. We could hike back the way we'd come, or keep going forward, and the trail would loop back to the main road. We decided to press forward. The trail was steeper and more difficult, and Little got really despondent. He'd walked the first bit of the trail, before we'd gotten to the Emerald Pools, but then rode in the backpack for the rest of it. Now we were all tired of carrying him, and he had to walk again. He wasn't too keen on that. Seeing him walk with his shoulders slumped was pretty funny. Also, keeping him away from the edge, and a tumble off a cliff was difficult too. He just didn't want to listen. So, when the river came back in view, and we were almost done, it was a welcome sight.

Now, we'd walked our way to the next bus stop on the line. We were at the Grotto, which was a great big picnic area, with dozens of picnic tables. It was the perfect place for lunch.

After lunch, we caught the shuttle bus to the Weeping Rock. That was a really pretty place. It was a short hike, but a rather steep one, so we made our way there slowly. When we got there, we found it was worth the trouble. Here's another panorama I took, click it to see a bigger version:

There seemed to be a lot of places like this one in Zion. Water seeped its way through the sandstone cliffs, dribbling out at the bottom. The trail took you to a cleft carved out of the rock, and you could stand underneath the Weeping Rock. From that cleft, Zion Canyon spread out before you in a truly breathtaking vista. I took a lot of pictures here of nothing but nature, which is something I complained to my father about a lot. He took us all on a trip through the Grand Canyon and the national parks in southern Utah back in 1978 or 1979, and there's whole rolls of film with nary a person in any of the shots. Yet, now, when I find myself in the same location 35 years later, I am doing the same.

I like how you can see the water dripping down from above in the shot. It was very cool.

By this point, we were all tuckered out, and ready to end our visit for the day. It was already starting to get dark in there, something that happens a lot earlier when you are surrounded on all sides by cliff walls that are thousands of feet high. So, we went back and hopped on the shuttle bus, and took it back to our car, which we took back to our hotel.

It was time to hit the pool again, although everyone was much more tired today than they had been the day before. My wife and older daughter sat in the hot tub for a few minutes. Little refused to get in, and only put his feet in. Then, the three of them went back to the room, and left the rest of us there.

I sat in the hot tub for a while longer, but it felt strange, like the tub was carbonated and the bubbles were tickling my skin, or maybe like the hot tub was full of miniscule crabs walking over my skin. It was unpleasant enough that I had to get out and jump in the pool instead.

I played with the kids in the pool for a while, then tried to get back in the hot tub. It continued as before, and was so uncomfortable that I just had to get out and stay out. My skin continued to hurt even after I got out. They complained, but I made the two kids with me come back to the hotel room so I could take a shower and wash my skin off. I was starting to think that they'd done something wrong with the chlorine in the hot tub, and I was going to be paying for it dearly if I didn't do something quick.

I washed and washed and washed. My skin was still angry and red when I got out of the shower, but I think I saved myself from the worst of it. My skin is always sensitive and dry as it is, but putting lots of lotion on seemed to keep it from getting any worse.

My wife had been really tired, and gone to sleep without taking a shower afterward, and her skin dried out and cracked for at least a week or more afterward. Luckily, Little only put his feet in, and not for long either. The next morning when I went down for breakfast, I noticed they had caution tape around the hot tub, they had drained the water completely, and a guy was working on it. My older daughter had the least skin damage of those of us who actually got in, but her swimsuit had turned from pink to purple. I told my wife that she needed to complain so that she'd get the price of the suit deducted from our bill, but she refused to be that customer, whether she deserved the reimbursement or not.

After breakfast, which was once again really great, we packed up the hotel room. My wife got out the presents for me to open before we left for our second day at Zion. I got some fun stuff. A couple of good books, some new shirts, and a great big Woody (the guy from Toy Story not the other thing you're thinking!). That was nice.

After presents, we got in the car and drove back to Zion. Today, we were only staying for a short while, but it was still going to be our big day. We went all the way to the end of the shuttle bus line to the Temple of Sinawava...

Only we did it in our car, because the day before had been the last day of shuttle bus service and they were shutting down for the winter. It was really hard to find a place to park, but we managed.

We took the Riverside Walk trail along the Virgin River. This was a low impact trail, but it did go for a little over a mile before we reached where we were headed. Little walked most of the way, but had to be carried here and there as well. Eventually, we made it to the Narrows. This is where the canyon comes together so tightly that the river fills it from one cliff to the other. You're allowed to keep hiking here, but it means that you will be spending a lot of time with your feet in the water.

My wife bought everyone water-friendly sandals, and we tromped our way into the river. The river was really cold. It could have been worse. It could have been full of spring runoff, making it impossible to get in without special clothes. It wasn't that, but it was still really cold.

We finally had to put a stop to our progress when the cliff narrowed enough that there were no dry spots on either side where we could get out of the water and let our feet thaw. We sat around for a while, letting the kids play. Then we walked back to the car...

Got in, and went home. The trip was done, and I am now officially 40 years old. It's all downhill from here.