Day 23

Friday, 10/02/15

Virgin, UT

Zion River Resort

We headed to Zion National Park around 9:30 but by the time we got there all the parking was full. We decided to drive to the east entrance and go through the 1+ mile tunnel and see if there might be parking when we got done.  The deal with the east entrance is that you drop 2000ft in a short time and go through a tunnel that has several openings like windows to look out on the mountains around you. When we got to the park boundry we ate lunch and started back to the central area of the park.  On our way we saw 4 female big horn sheep resting under some trees in the shade up on the hillside. pic below. When we reached the central area there were still no parking places so we went to Springdale which is a town about 3 or 4 miles out of the park. Fortunately the park runs shuttles from several places in town into the park. From there you can catch another shuttle that goes to the areas in the park private vehicles are not allowed. 

Our camera battery konked out in about 2 hrs so we did not get as many pics as we had hoped but tried to fill in a little with the cell phone camera. The park shuttle took you to the highlights, several named mts and cliffs.  We saw climbers climbing straight up very high, very sheer cliff faces, with ropes and spikes of course, 

looked suicidal to me. One of the stops was Weeping Rock. Is had one nonporous layer where all the rain that fell and filtered through the rock got stopped and ran to the end of that layer and dripped down in anything from a rain like drip to a water fall like drip depending on the weather.  This has been a dry year so it was more like rain. pic below. It was strange in the middle of a desert to see water loving plants growing below and on this rock face. 

We took the shuttle back to town. It just happened to stop at a ice cream and candy store. We got some ice cream and walked a block to the truck and drove back to the campground.  

Tomorrow we will see an extreme NW corner of Zion on our way to Cedar Breaks and Bryce Canyon. A successful day despite the camera problem. Tomorrow will take an extra battery. 

Tap below for map & 3 pics.