Are we there yet? Day 8 afternoon

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WOW!

This is our second visit to Zion National Park, the last time we were here, probably in the 1990's, we were able to tour the entire park at our own discretion. This time, we needed to park our car at the Visitor's Center and take a shuttle throughout the valley. You could get off the shuttle at any per-determined stop, and walk or hike a trail. While you lose the freedom to drive throughout the Valley, the bus driver serves as a tour guide pointing out interesting spots that you can visit. We took the shuttle to the end of the run, then walked a hiking trail to the trailhead of the river gorge. We talked with a couple hikers who walked the river trail. They had on dry suits covering their entire bodies, and had walking sticks. They said some of the time they walked (floated) through water chest high. That is a hike for us some other time.

The Virgin River has carved the valley floor in the park, and the entire area surrounding it. We changed our plans and decided not to go through Death Valley so instead of going south, we headed north from Zion to Cedar City. The hotel staff recommended a little pizza place, which had hand tossed brick oven pizza. we had hand made cremini mushroom pizza with creme fraiche and rosemary. We also had a great salad with a wonderful lemon basil vinegarette dressing. We also tasted another local beer-a pale ale.

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Comments

[Candy]

a bit of heaven on earth
Zion is one of my favorite places. We were able to hike the river trail but it was during the summer.