ZION National Park

It was a short ride in a bus today to get to Zion National Park.  Wasn’t sure what to expect but all I can say was it was awesome !!  They have a shuttle bus that runs from the visitor centre to 3 or 4 various places where you can take a short or very long hike to get a spectacular view.  Some of the hikes were 15 or more miles and are labelled strenuous and take 1 – 2 days to complete.  They pointed out some hikers that were at the top of one of the ridges.  The path can be 3 feet wide in places with a 800 foot drop on one side and a 1200 foot drop on the other.  They said they do have guide ropes along the path.  Yipee !!! Not for me, thank you very much.  We stayed on the short, no drops on either side, trails.  It’s hard to describe such a place.  It’s a feast for the eyes.  Where to look, what picture to take, you can snap and snap and snap and each one is different.  There is so much to see, such stark beauty, a wondrous site. 
After doing the shuttle thing, we had lunch back at the visitors centre then went to see an IMAX film about the history of the inhabitants of the park.  Various people have inhabited it through the centuries.  Both Ken and I just about lost our lunch with the zooming over and down the mountains.  Had to shut our eyes to get back our equilibrium.  Then we boarded our bus, a huge 45 footer and took this itty bitty road way up into the mountains.  There’s a tunnel there that’s over a mile long.  If we had known the condition of the road and how high up it was and how close we were to the edge, we would have waited for them at the visitor’s centre and not gone.  Really, I’m serious.  I hate that kind of thing, that road was not made for a bus that size, especially since it was under construction and only 1 lane was open. 
We got back here at around 5 PM, both dogs were fine but very happy to see us.  Someone managed to get into the little spot I had put Arthur’s food and ate it all.  Poor bugger didn’t have food all day.  I think it was probably Jackson, but then I can’t be sure.  I knew they’d be hungry because they ate breakfast very early today.  I did leave a little snack for the dog sitters to give them, but they were starved when we got home.  Fed them supper right away.
Between us we took over 100 pictures so to narrow them down for this blog was difficult.  Tried to include some that show the size and grandeur of Zion.  But pictures do not do it justice.
Click on photos to get a bigger view..