From Stella: We woke up, had a good breakfast and we dropped off Maggie at the pet hotel for the day. Then we drove up to Zion. First we stopped at the visitor center to get the information about the Jr. Rangers Program so I could get the cool wooden badge. The other national parks I've been too have plastic badges. I did the first page of the Jr. Rangers packet and then we hopped on the shuttle. We rode up to the Emerald Pools and hiked up the beautiful trail. Even though there wasn't much rainfall, the Emerald Pools were still very pretty.
Our next shuttle stop was up at River Walk. We hiked up the trail and at the end, I took my shoes off and put my feet in the river. The water was perfect after hiking a couple miles. We hiked back and hopped back on the shuttle. We needed to stop at several places to complete more activities in my Jr. Rangers handbook. The last place we stopped was the Zion Museum. We listened to a cool speech about Zion's rocks and geology. It turned out I could get my cool wooden badge at the museum. I was sworn in by Ranger Gretchen to protect our National Parks for generations to come, and to try to get my friends to visit our National Parks too.
After that we rode the shuttle back to the visitors center, walked back to the car, picked up Maggie from the puppy day care, headed back to the hotel and had a refreshing dip in the pool.
From Stacey: After a busy morning, we headed out to Zion from St. George, which is about 45 minutes - an hour away. We did all fun things Stella said. The hike up to the Emerald Pools was filled with wildlife. We saw some Bambi style deer in the river drinking water as well as an elephant beetle. The pools were a little underwhelming because of the lack of rainfall. There is usually a pretty decent waterfall, from what I hear. We had more of a trickle, but it was still very pretty. We only hiked the lower pool, because of time constraints, but I would love to do the middle and upper pools too.
We headed up to River Walk, which was nice because it was in the shade. It was starting to get warm. My goal for the day was to complete the hikes before lunch so we wouldn't be dealing with them in the heat of the day. When we got back to the shuttle it was HOT! We ate lunch at the Zion Lodge in the restaurant (the one inside with the air conditioning). The food was tasty! We did all the other very hot stops for Stella's Ranger Badge requirements. It was good though.
Lessons learned: Some of the Zion shuttle stops are more interesting than others. I want to go back!
Trying to do everything in one day is exhausting! I think one big hike
per day and then some re-hydration is necessary. You need to drink a lot more water than you think. It was 98° when we left. I thought I drank enough water, but I had a dehydration headache...no bueno! Get to the park early because it gets really crowded at about 10:30 am. We were there at 8:45, which was great because the Ranger Stations don't open until 8:30am. I loved the ranger talks. I would definitely go to more of those!
This is my last blog entry, because the drive home from Zion wasn't all that interesting. It is nice to be home! I am so thankful to my parents for letting Stella and I join my dad while driving across the country. Thanks mom, for letting me take dad home early. Thanks dad for a really great trip! Memories were definitely made!
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