Wednesday 9/16/2020
Zion National Park, we had 10:00 am tickets for the bus, and needed 40 or so minutes to get in the park. Note to self, traffic is stupid in N.P.’s and parking is nearly non existent. Mike & Angie rode with Irish & Tina, and they found a parking spot after circling the lot a number of times, Mandi and I were less fortunate, we had to park outside the park and hoof it back in, with barely enough time to hit the bathrooms before finding everybody else, and jumping on the bus.
We then all rode the bus to the furthest stop, the Temple of Sinawava/River Walk and off loaded and starting hiking a 1.5 mi trail before it actually goes into the river. We all decided against getting wet, even though the temps were climbing, supposedly only the upper 90s today…
We then turned around and hiked back to catch the bus. Normally there are 4 or 5 stops but many were closed leaving only 3 stops available to depart, but the other stop would have us hiking/walking along the road that you share with bikes and busses (No POVs allowed) we opted to go all the way back down to the lodge and found a “nice” little 6 mi hike to the Emerald Pools. We came to a cross in the trail and Mandi got to choose our destination between Upper, Middle and Lower pools, thinking the lower would be too simple she opted for the Middle Pool, that let us catch the lower pool along the way back. WE ALMOST DIED!
I don’t recall what the elevation was but it was insane! We climbed up and up and up, and up before finding a slight decline in the trail leading to a mossy green pool, very underwhelming. It seemed all the creeks, and ponds were turning over and very ugly. Not what I anticipated at all.
We finally made our way back down to the lodge and go on a bus back to the visitor’s center, then to our rigs, and decided to drive through the rest of Zion. It was a great drive, but I recommend turning around at the park sign and retracing the route back to camp.
But we’re adventuresome so we took the scenic route for the next 3 plus hours out the east entrance to Mt Carmel Junction. It was beautiful, then we hit Hwy 89 to Kanab, then Hwy 89A to Fredonia, AZ, then Hwy 389 to Colorado City, AZ, before crossing back into UT where Hwy 389 becomes Hwy 59 and traverses Apple Valley before dropping back into Hurricane.
It was a long day, and after two down days we now had 3 days of wheeling left to prep for, none of us lasted long that night and we went to bed around 9 or 10 pm.
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