You'd be hard-pressed to find a more beautiful place in the world than Zion National Park. The cool river running through the red bluffs is just amazing. It was also the perfect introduction for the boys to vacation.
The last time Kelly and I were at Zion, we camped out. This time around, we stayed at the Bumbleberry Inn Hotel. The boys were enthralled with everything about hotel life: the key cards, the little soaps, the ice machine, the nurses. Nurses, you ask? For reasons that we have yet to fully understand, Gus continually referred to the housekeeping staff as "nurses." As in, "Did the nurses make our beds?"
As with all kids, the pool was a
big hit! Practically every moment we weren't hiking, eating or sleeping, we were at the pool. Now, I'm not sure if I believe the gal at the front desk when she told me the pool heater was broken, or maybe the Bumbleberry just doesn't heat its pool seeing how the day-time temperatures were right about 100 (37 C), but it was cold. I mean
cold!
Of course Gus and Niko didn't mind. Gus has become quite a good little swimmer and enjoyed flinging himself into the icy waters - especially if he had some buddies to join him. Jimmer and Ellie from Park City were always up for a good jump. But Jordan and Elliot from France preferred lap racing.
The pool was fun, but we came for the hiking. And on Friday and Saturday, we jumped on the town's free (natural gas) shuttle right from our hotel and rode to the entrance of the park. Once there, we grabbed Zion's free (natural gas, also)shuttle that runs the length of Zion Canyon.
The first day we hiked to the Emerald Pools. The trail meanders through red rock cliffs until waterfalls cascade down from the top of mesas, forming clear pools turned emerald by algae. Literally, oases in the middle of the desert.
Since the middle pool was closed due to a rock slide, we grabbed a connecting trail that circled through some really amazing views of the canyon, until finally dropping us off at the Virgin River.
There's nothing like wading in the Virgin. So that's exactly what we did. The cool water felt so good after hiking in the sun, and I taught the boys a new trick: how to catch tiny river frogs. They were everywhere - and in all phases of their evolution: from tadpoles to full-fledged frogs.
On our last day we took the park shuttle to its end, the Temple of Sinawava, where we hiked the River Walk Trail along the refreshing river, to the Narrows. This is a really amazing part of the park - you can actually hike
in the river through the canyon. Now when we were last there, we probably hiked 2-3 miles in. This time, since the water hit Niko's thighs, we made it 2-3 hundred feet.
On the way back down the River Walk Trail, we made a detour: finding a huge bolder in the middle of the Virgin River, we forged out to it, climbed aboard, made fresh mozzarella and tomato sandwiches and enjoyed lunch in the middle of the river.
Our last hike in the canyon was to Weeping Rock. This was a short but sometimes steep jaunt to an overhang, where water literally seeps through the sandstone from the mesa above. It takes 1,000 years for the water to make its journey, so the water that got us wet hit the top of the meas about the time Leif Eriksson and the Vikings were hitting the coast of North America.
After a hot day of hiking, there's nothing like a refreshing ice cream. So we enjoyed a cone under the giant cottonwood tree at the visitor center, and listened to a ranger-led talk about big horn sheep (the boys got to touch a skull and the horn!).
Speaking of sheep, next to the hotel there was a small herd of plain old, regular goats. Niko asked if we could buy one. They also had chickens and ducks. On our hikes we saw a couple deer, lots of squirrels, what as either a very large eagle or one of the re-introduced California condors. And in the evenings we watched little bats dart about keeping the skies bug free.
But the most exciting animal sighting was the feral cat that hung out by our room. Kelly took pity on it and fed it. The boys' failed miserably at keeping it out of our room. Conspiring against me, the boys and Kelly hatched a plan to bring the cat back to Salt Lake with us. They even named him, Wildcat Willie (after the nearby restaurant). Only Willie looked more like a Wilhelmina to me!
After really pondering it for a while, the morning we left for Vegas, it was decided that Willie should remain in Springdale. Kelly had come to his senses...or had he? Read all about Willie and our trip to Vegas in the next Who's Your Daddy!
