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We have somehow lost another hour today, I suspect it was when we crossed into Utah from Arizona.
A coolish start today (mid 50'sF) and a skype chat with Marta in Brussels at 6-30am, before getting breakfast in the Hotel at 7am.
Annette is now feeling better and joined us for breakfast before we set off to the Zion visitor centre to catch the shuttle bus to the top of Zion Canyon to do the riverside walk.
This walk takes you along the Virgin River into a narrow canyon. The paved way stops as the canyon narrows and the only way on is to start wading up the river itself.
Vern and Annette decided they did not want to get wet so turned back at this point but Bob and Dinah carried on wading upstream for a bit longer. The water was really cold and the tall walls of the canyon meant that the sun did not reach the bottom. The further up we went the narrower it got and the deeper the water became. We stopped to re-assess as Dinah panicked that her camera equipment may go underwater, then a group of three overtook us and
almost immediately went into waist deep water. At this point Dinah and I decided to return as we were both now feeling very cold.
We had to get back to the bus stop before we found the sun and it's warmth. It took some time to warm up in the sun then we caught the shuttle bus back down the canyon to the Grotto and walked on the trail to the Emerald Pools and then carried on down the trail to Zion Lodge. We decided to have lunch here before our next walk,but by now it had reached 97F. We decided that we would do a short walk to the Weeping Rock before retreating to the Zion Human History Centre mainly to find some air conditioning whilst it was so hot.
We watched a half hour video at the centre about Zion Canyon History and Development.
After this we decided to do one further walk the Sand Bench Trail it should have been called the Sand Beach Trail. It was only 2 to 3 miles in length but it was just like trying to walk along a beach in very soft sand, which meant it was very
heavy going most of the way and in great heat. It turned out that it was also the only trail that allowed horses along so the track was even more chewed up by the passage of horses which passed us a couple of times.
At the end of trail we crossed the Virgin River by a footbridge to run into a group of wild turkeys, grazing close to the river. We then caught the shuttle bus back to the hotel for a much needed shower.
We then all went off to Dinner at the Spotted Dog restuarant just across the road from our hotel. Vern and I had Meat Loaf, made from Elk, Buffalo, Beef and Bacon it was delicious. The Girls had salads and we all struggled to finish the meals.
All in all a good day in Zion Canyon albeit a hot one.
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