In late September, I made my second annual trip to Zion National Park in Southern Utah. It is one of the most beautiful places I've had the opportunity to visit. I especially enjoy the hiking. The trails range from very easy to very challenging and provide great scenary along the way.This year, my almost 8 year old niece, Maddie, went along with me. She took a week off of school to go hiking with her "old" aunt.
Our first day, we took the Weeping Rock and Hidden Canyon trails. On the Weeping Rock trail, we saw 2 mule deer foraging for food. They were not afraid of us and we were able to get very close to them to take photos. We then headed up the Hidden Canyon trail. It is a steep trail and in places, there are chains to hang on to. Maddie did great. She wasn't afraid of the trails or heights and was quite the little hiker.
Here she is sitting on the edge of the West Rim Trail. The colors are so beautiful with the contrast of the red sandstone against the blue sky. We had great weather while we were there in late September.
We also took the Canyon Overlook Trail early on the morning we headed up to Bryce Canyon. We were very lucky and got to see several Bighorn Sheep along the way. They walked right up to us along the road.
After following the Bighorn Sheep for a while, we headed on up to Bryce Canyon. We took the Navajo Loop Trail and going down wasn't bad, coming back up out of the canyon was a bit more challenging. On the way back to Springdale, we took a minor detour up to Cedar Mountain so Maddie could see Navajo Lake, where the Virgin River begins. We were fortunate to see a few fall colors along the road.
Our last day in Zion, we took the Emerald Pools Trail in the early morning and were fortunate enough to see a tarantula along the trail. He was huge! Thank goodness one doesn't run into one of them in Iowa! We also saw a mule deer family feeding around Lower Emerald Pools. This was the only buck we saw.
We then took the Riverside Trail up to the beginning of the Narrows water trail. Unfortunately we didn't rent the river hiking shoes that we should have to enter the Narrows and barefoot wasn't going to cut it, so we decided we'd have to do it next year!
