This morning we were only about 30 miles outside of Zion National Park so the plan was to get an early start before the Visitors Center parking lot filled up. It was a great plan, we just didn't do so well on the execution as we just couldn't seem to get going. We finally hit the road about 9:00. Once on the road, we had to stop about 10 minutes down the road. We were cold! It turns out it was only 66 degrees that early in the morning. It later warmed up to the low 90's.
     We headed up US-89 out of Kanab, UT and the scenery really is beautiful in this part of the country . We're far enough north that there is at least some vegetation on the mountains which are almost always a spectacular shade of red. We turned west on UT-9, the Zion-Mt Carmel Highway leads to the parks east entrance. The ride from the east entrance to the Visitors Center is awesome! The roadbed is a reddish brown color for some reason, and blends in perfectly with spectacular rock formation after spectacular rock formation. The road follows in between mountains sometimes and is cut through at others. There are two tunnels, one short one and one that is over a mile long and is curved and sloped. Both are just cut into the rock and are unlit.
     We stopped at many scenic turnouts along the road and took lots of pictures. At several time we spotted Longhorn Ram climbing among the rocks, but just couldn't seem to coordinate the sighting with a camera opportunity. At the end of the second tunnel are a series of very steep switchbacks bringing us down to the floor of the valley. There were motorcycles everywhere on this road . It was great fun to ride!
     Zion National park is a little different than most, as the main scenic road is closed to traffic and only open to the Zion Shuttle Bus service which is free. Buses run continuously, and we never have to wait more than 5 minutes for the next one. Evidently, because the road is so narrow with very few turnouts, and it dead ends rather than a loop, traffic was such a nightmare when it was open to the public that they closed it some years back. The buses run from the Visitors Center to the end of the scenic drive and back.
     The problem is that parking at the Visitors Center is limited, and if you don't get a spot, you have to leave the park at the south entrance and park your car in the outside town of Springdale and take another bus to the Visitors Center. Since we didn't leave early, by the time we got to the Visitors Center, the parking lot was full. Of course, we think we are special because we have a motorcycle, so we headed into the full parking lot anyway. Sure enough, right next to the handicapped parking, right next to the Visitors Center, another motorcycle was parked . And being a courteous motorcycle rider, he parked on one side of the parking space so there was enough room to park our bike right next to his in the same parking space. What luck!
      We headed to the Visitors Center, got our passports stamped, bought our t-shirts, but that stuff back in the bike and headed over to the shuttle buses. We rode the first bus all the way to the end of he scenic road to a stop called "The Temple of Sinawava", Who knows, but it had a nice paved trail that followed the river for a couple of miles. We knew we were going to be doing a lot of hiking today, so we went down the path for about a half mile and turned back. We actually had river access on this path, so we could go right down to the river and play in the water. The Virgin River is really more the size of a creek, and it evidently has a high silt content, because it looked pretty muddy.
     The entire scenic road is essentially a river canyon path with huge, red vertical sides on both sides. This is a really deep gorge, where the sides are up to 2000 ft high . the scenery is breathtaking in spots, and we made sure to take lots of pictures. From there we hopped on the shuttle down to Big Bend. There's not a lot of hiking there, more just an opportunity to take some great pictures. From Big Bend you can see a place up on the mountain called Angels Landing that you can hike to following a trail at The Grotto.
    The next stop was a place called Weeping Rock, where water flows continuously out of a rock overhang through cracks in the stone, so it give the appearance of raining from the stone. It's very strange, but after hiking the very seep path uphill to get to the Weeping Rock, getting rained on to cool off was a welcome relief. We hung around there enjoying the cool water for a while before hiking back down and boarding the shuttle for The Grotto.
     Now The Grotto is really mostly the trailhead to Angels Landing, which I guess is the most famous and best hike in Zion. It's only a couple of miles long, but is very difficult, gains lots of altitude and boasts an unprotected narrow ledge path with a 1400 ft drop . People have fallen off the mountain and died here! A little too serious of a hike for what we are doing. But it does look like fun! So we just took a bunch of pictures and boarded the shuttle for the Lodge. The Lodge is a hotel right in the middle of the park. Of course it is expensive, and you have to book like a year in advance. It's cool though, and there is a cafe and a gift shop as well. So we stopped for a little lunch of tuna sandwiches and soda. One thing we did notice is that now that it is August, many of the tourists are European. Lots of French, German, and a little Italian being spoken as we sat eating our lunch.
     When we left the Lodge, we walked over to some of the hiking trails nearby. We took the shortest to the lower Emerald Pool, as it was only a little over a mile roundtrip. As we passed the river, it was a little deeper near the Lodge, and as you would expect the kids were playing in it regardless of how muddy it was, Everyone was having a great time. The hike to the Emerald Pools was fun, a little up and down path, not too strenuous . At the end, there were a couple of very small waterfalls and it dripped along the path to cool everyone off.
    We left the Lodge, and boarded the shuttle for the Court of the Patriarchs, which is basically an easy 100 yard hike up an overlook to take pictures of the 3 peaks called the Patriarchs. That was easy, so we boarded again for the last stop, the Canyon Junction.
     Canyon Junction was mostly just another picture opportunity, but it also had a 1.5 mile trail back to the Visitors Center. By now the crowds of the buses were enough for us, and the quiet stroll back to the Visitors Center sounded great. There were very few people on the trail, and it passed by the campsite area. Mostly people were tent camping in that spot. We also spotted a deer grazing in the bushes next to the trail, but when we tried to take a picture we frightened her away.
     By the time we made it back to the Visitors Center is was about 3:30. It had been a really great day, and we were thinking of heading on to the hotel . But on the way, there is another part of Zion National Park called Kolob Canyon. It's really only connected to the park by hiking trails, but there is access on I-15. So we followed UT-9W on to UT-17W until we ran into I-15 again. About 12 miles up on I-15, we exited to the Kolob Canyon Visitors Center. It was about 4:30, and we were just going to stop and get our passports stamped. But the ranger said it was only a 5-mile scenic ride and it looked best in the late afternoon anyway. So we took the scenic ride to the overlook and it was beautiful. Where Zion was all about being in the valley and looking up at the cliff sides, Kolob Canyon was about being on the mountain and looking down into the valley. And the view was spectacular. We're glad we made the trip. besides, it wouldn't be right to stamp the passport without actually seeing the canyon.
   By the time we got to the hotel, we were tired. I had about 17,000 steps for the day and Jody had about 20,000.   We hiked a lot! There was a Chili's next door to the hotel, so we ate dinner and headed back to the hotel. Jody was going to do laundry, as this is a pretty new hotel, and the washers and dryers were almost new. But the hotel didn't have any quarters to run the machines, so laundry will have to be tomorrow.
     Tomorrow we head over to Cedar Breaks National Monument and Bryce Canyon National Park. It should be a great day!

112.7 miles today
13,904.6 miles total

3.482 gallons today
333.644 gallons total