Thursday, July 6, 2017

Summer Trip 2017 - Zion National Park

Dear Readers,

Celeste and I got up early and headed out, not quite as early as we intended, but you know it is alway harder to get away than you think it will be.  We were making a second attempt at being at the Great Salt Lake at sunrise.  We ended up getting there about 6:45 or so which was a few minutes after sunrise.
You can barely see the kayakers moving away from the shore.



That is Celeste out on that point of land

Loved the reflection of the rocks in this one.

It was beautiful out there, but very still.  The only movements was some kayakers that were putting in for a paddle.  I don't remember seeing any birds or anything else.

After we took our photos we decided to get the car washed and head out toward Zion National Park.  Got to use that park pass again! At this point we had changed our itinerary to go to Zion and Antelope Canyon.  So we had found a studio airbnb on the far side of Zion for our accommodation for that night.  We know that is not the best arrangement for us due to my noisy sleeping and Celeste being such a light sleeper.  But it is what we could find on short notice.









The hike at Zion was rated an easy hike that was good for families.  I think they lied.  Well they didn't lie for the beginning. The hike to the first pool was steep in places, but overall an easier hike...after that it got interesting.  We were climbing over borders, and had tricky footing.  Thank goodness I had my hiking poles or I might not have been able to get up or down.  There were so many people on this hike and the trail was really crowded.  It was by far the busiest hike we had seen so far.  That adds to the difficulty as the trails are narrow in parts and hard to stay out of each others way.  There were a number of folks in my age group that looked equally as challenged by the course as I was.  This was an up and back hike so on the way down, Celeste and I were stopped by a couple going up,  that wanted to know how long since my knee replacement.  I told her almost a year.  She said she was a PT and was going to go tell her patients about me...I was so tired at this point and discouraged over my slowness and lack of fitness, that I almost cried.  It was an encouragement that I really needed at that point.

After we left Zion we drove to Page to spend the night.  Somehow we got turned around and came out the wrong entrance to the park which ended up routing us a long way to Page.  We saw some more spectacular scenes along the way.


I know I said I would keep it to ten or so a day, but if you could see all the photos, you would say how could she not post them all.  Trying so hard just to give you enough without overwhelming you.

Tomorrow I will post about antelope canyon.  That is going to be super hard!!

Terry

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