Come to Zion, Come to Zion!

Saturday we returned from a fabulous excursion to Zion National Park. Jeff's mom watched the baby for us at his sister's house and we missed him a little but it was easier to do what we did. Here's the rundown of the fun we had, read on for a truly multimedia-packed travel log.

Thursday

We paid a visit to Cove Fort on our way south. I rather enjoyed learning about how the pioneers were very self-reliant. I already knew about this but it really was remarkable to see how they even did things like save hair after haircuts so that the girls could have dolls with real hair! I'd never been before, and I'm glad we stopped there for a while for the tour.

We then ventured down to Beaver for lunch at Subway and then finally made it to St. George where we had planned on doing a session in the temple there. It was really great to be there and again be reminded of the sacrifices of the pioneers. I'd never been there either, so it was great to go with Jeff.

Such a good picture, Jeff!

Thursday night we finally made it to our campground at Zion. We set up camp, changed out of our dress clothes and got dinner (Dutch Oven Medley) started and hopped on our bikes and headed over to explore the Visitor's Center of the park.

Friday At Zion they have a shuttle bus that takes visitors around the park, which is pretty handy and also not bad for keeping the park looking lovely by significantly limiting cars allowed in the park. I doubt this would work at Yellowstone though, it's just too big! :) We started our day with a nice breakfast burrito, then we headed over to do The Hike. I had seriously prayed that I'd be able to be calm while hiking Angels Landing, so named because only angels can get there. I'm happy to report that I not only maintained my composure throughout the 5 miles, but I also managed to enjoy it A LOT.

A little ways from the start, you can see we've risen a bit already. It's 1500 ft vertical rise total, as you shall see...

This series of very short switchbacks is called Walter's Wiggles, aptly named, and very fun to prance around on.

The family that wiggles together stays together.

After wiggling our way to the "top," we had a quick rest before heading to our final destination, shown below. We took the above picture to show that we were well informed of the risks presented in taking such a hike.

Only 0.5 miles to go! Yikes!

Thank goodness for those chains. I thought of all sorts of iron rod parallels on the way up.

A lovely panorama shot by ever-amazing Jeff!

Isn't that a great view?! I was really proud of myself for conquering this little hike. They say pride comes before the fall, but I didn't fall! :) Here's another video at the top and another video of the trip down just to show you how precarious things were and why I was excited to have not been shaking/freaking out/etc. like I was, say, on the Brooklyn Bridge two summers ago when we went to NYC.

After we finished Angels Landing we headed over to Weeping Rock and did a "hike" up to see this cool rock with water coming out from between the rock layers. It is pretty neat. We also learned that the park is home to over 900 varieties of plants and vegetation, more than Hawaii. Very cool:

Then we hiked one mile on the Riverside Trail, made it to the river, then kept right on plowing through that water and tried our hands at canyoneering. Also very cool, but slightly tiring, so we didn't make it too far into the Narrows where it gets even more, um, narrow. We never found a Zion Snail, though, which was sad. We even looked a few times. They are the size of a pencil tip!

We made it back to our campsite, changed into dry shoes and socks and grabbed our bikes and off we went. We put our bikes on the racks on the shuttle and we rode out to near the top of the canyon, hopped off, rode a little, bought my token thimble since I have to get one wherever I go, and then pretty much coasted the whole way back to the campground. It was so exhilirating and we headed off the road onto a bike trail that took us back to our campsite. This little trail was about 1.8 mi long and zigged and zagged across the river on bridges and it was so pretty.

We had skillet lasagna for dinner and then slept VERY well that night as you can imagine. We also finished watching Rocky III that night. We started it Thursday but saved the training sequence and fight for Friday. "I don't hate the man; I pity the fool!"

Saturday

We took one last jaunt up a hill (vertical rise of 80 feet, wow) and enjoyed the view once more before we hopped in the car. On the way out, we spotted some ostriches and an emu that we'd seen on the way in on Thursday. So, we got out and obeyed the sign that said to enjoy the Ostrich Photo Op. Kind of random, but kind of exciting also.

Jeff wanted to purchase an egg, but we didn't know who they belonged to. He was also worried that he'd go to cook it and a baby bird would pop out. Their legs bend backwards, by the way, and you can see it in the picture obviously, but it is interesting to see live and in person...more like sitting on an elbow than kneeling down...I love their necks, too.

We made it home that afternoon, and Jacob even remembered us. It was a lot of fun and I'm sure glad we went. It was so fun to be able to spend time with Jeff & just really enjoy each other's company in a beautiful place. We highly recommend it!!