Just Another Day in Paradise

Happy Summer! We celebrated this solstice by once again visiting Zion National Park.  We left home about 8:30 this morning and actually found a good parking spot in the visitor center lot.  We rode the free shuttle up the canyon:

There are about 9 stops along the route.  You can get off at any of the stops and catch another shuttle later one, they come along about every 7 to 10 minutes.

We got off at the Emerald Pool trail and took a short hike along the Virgin River:

We experimented with some waterfall photography:

This is one of several emerald pools:

Ah, beautiful, cool shade:

After our little hike we continued on to the end of the shuttle line, making a couple of additional stops along the way.

Once we got back to the visitor’s center, we switched shuttles and took the town shuttle into Springdale, the small village (tourist trap) just outside the main entrance to the park.  I asked the shuttle driver for a restaurant recommendation and without hesitation he said, “Oscar’s” – so that’s where we went and had a very good lunch. 

I needed just a little retail therapy while walking off some of the lunch, so we visited a little shop where we each bought a shirt.

As I was going through our nearly 200 pictures from today, I continue to realize how impossible it is to convey the awesome beauty of this part of our amazing country with just words and pictures, but here are a few more examples of the scenery as we made our way back out of the park.

A close-up of a very high water fall:

I know it doesn’t look like much in this photo, but those trees along the edge of that rock are full-grown, tall trees, not little bushes!

Our friends Jo and Fred Wishnie (The Wandering Wishnies) have been camp hosting at a nearby state park, Kodachrome Basin.  They posted a blog today with more descriptions and beautiful photos of this area.  But, I have to agree with their sentiment, if you haven’t already been here you really need to put it on your list of “must see” places!