Today, for the first time in 17 days, I started my day by NOT packing up and moving out of the night's lodgings. We stayed in Zion the whole day and are back at our same motel tonight. A first for me!!
Like the good public transportation professionals that we are, we left the car at the motel and took the Springdale shuttle to the park. It's a great system -- shuttles run every few minutes and it's a very easy way to get around.
We decided to tackle the Emerald Falls hike. By mistake, I took us on the more strenuous version so we got quite a workout. As you can see, it was well worth it.
Even Max came along and seemed to enjoy the chance to be outdoors.
As you can see, we felt quite triumphant about the whole thing.
In fact, we were so proud of ourselves that we immediately went to the gift store, where Bonnie spent 45 minutes finding all sorts of treasures while I parked myself on a chair in the Zion Lodge lobby. Then we went and had lunch at the lodge, during which we decided to abandon any other hikes or walks we had thought we might do. It was just too hot by then. Instead, we rode the Zion shuttle through the park to see it all, then came back to our motel.
We decided to drive through the historic tunnel and enjoy another side of Zion. The picture at the top of today's blog gives you an indication of what the road was like. In addition to the twists and turns, it's under construction, which gave us a chance to snap these photos.
Sometimes we were just so bored sitting in the waiting traffic that we took pictures of ourselves!
We decided not to turn around and drive back but, instead, took the longest shortcut I've ever taken. We drove waaaaaaaaaaay around, down into Arizona, back to Utah, and through a whole other landscape.
We almost changed over to this hotel. It should be named the Shipwreck!
Tonight we dined at the Bit and Spur. Another fine meal of chile-rubbed rib eye and fish tacos. It's still hot as the dickens but we're merrily inside the air conditioned splendor of the Driftwood and getting ready to drift off ourselves.
Sounds fabulous! Glad you got to be two nights in one place--must be quite a treat! xox Debra
ReplyDeleteHardly knew what to do with myself!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Susan and Bonnie: Two nights in one place is like planting roots! How did you ever leave? I am happy to hear that you are eating such good food.....chili rellenos and fish tacos is making my mouth water. Max looks quite pleased to have been out and about too. We are back from the beach and missing the ocean already! Love, Pat
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