Our first afternoon included a trip to the next town up, St George for an oil change at the Honda dealer and a bit of perusing the Camping World next door. We also had a bite to eat at St George's Pup where the French Dip sandwich special was delicious!
From Hurricane we are seeing Zion National Park. Zion is much lower in elevation than Bryce, around 3000 ft. The only trouble is the temp from mid morning to late evening is running 104-110 deg. So, we got up at 3:00 a.m. to combat the heat and be able to hike. Since we got there before dawn and the Visitor's Center was still closed, we didn't have our normal prep with a Ranger on the hikes, shuttle bus, etc. Thank goodness Sharon and Bobby had briefed us on their trip and left us with maps. The park is set up such that you must take a shuttle bus everywhere during this time of year.We chose to do the Watchman Hike right from the Visitor's Center and had planned to take a shuttle afterwards to our next hike. This hike has an elevation change of about 370 ft and with an extra loop, the distance is about 4 mi, but felt much longer.
We started as dawn was breaking and the temps were a nice 70 deg. With a light wind...
The hike starts easy enough by the river..
Quickly the trail gets rocky as you hike upward.
Soon the sun brought life to the rocks, so pretty,
There were few people this early, but nice flowers and cactus adorned the path...
We stopped a few times to rest...who knew we'd find a chair!
Once we got to the summit we were treated with a nice vista...
Here is the Visitor's Center and local town far below!
Tomorrow another early day!
We made our way back down about 21/2 hrs later to find an hour long wait for shuttles. The ranger said, "Welcome to weekends at Zion." Since the temps would soon climb to an unbearable level if we waited an hour in line, we decided on a plan B, we would go back tomorrow for the shuttle hikes and decided to go to the North Zion area, Kol, where the elevation is 7000-8000 ft bringing nice temps.
Kolob was so different than the rest of Zion, with rich green topping tall canyons. Unfortunately the time of day we were there was not the best for photography, having to shoot into the sun resulted in an awful glare and made the brilliant blue sky look washed out...but we were there, so these pics will have to do!
Since we were in the northern section, we decided to head on up to Cedar Breaks National Monument. I had no idea the elevation was 10,300-11,000 FT
A crisp 62 deg made for beautiful vistas. This park must be on the southern edge of Hoodoos that populate Bryce as there were small ones in the gorgeous amphitheater!
As we climbed the views only got better...the area is populated with wild flowers and cedar trees making for an Alpine feel along with the cool temps!
And yes, we even saw snow!
A great day topped off with dinner at the Gun Barrel Steak and Game House where we had prime rib buffalo!
Om the way home we drove by the original Mormon church
Jim & Kathy sent me your blog address and I am really enjoying your trip. Thanks for the pictures and write ups.
ReplyDeleteEd Dodson
Great blog today. You had a long day but the scenery is just breathtaking.
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