Zion Day Two - Hiking

For our second and last day at Zion National Park we did a couple of hikes. The first was up to the Lower Emerald Pool. It was a fun little hike that actually went under a very small water fall.

In the afternoon we hiked up to the start of the Narrows. It's where the Zion canyon narrows to cliffs just above the Virgin River. If you're prepared (and we weren't), you can hike up into the Narrows by walking up the river. We stopped at the beginning of the narrows. Here are our pictures and a video that Betty made of our Narrows hike.

After we got back to our room, we saw this right outside our porch.

 

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Day One In Zion National Park

Our first day in Zion National Park started off great. We went down to the corrals at 8:30 AM to sign in for our half day ride. Betty was given a white mule named Jasper and I was given a quarter horse named Stomper.

Our wrangler was an old cowboy named Bob who is 68, a year older than us. He knew every bad joke in the book, but he was fun to talk to.

Our ride went up about 600 feet and it was fairly technical in spots. We were riding with two other couples - one from Northern Michigan and a younger couple from Northern New Jersey. They were all pretty nice which helps. It was a beautiful ride and our mule/horse did well.

Here are a few photos and a video (somewhat long - sorry) of our ride.

We had such a good time we registered for the half day ride in Bryce Canyon which is run by the same people. We'll take that ride this coming Friday.

For lunch we had a bacon cheeseburger which, after our ride, tasted great.

After resting for a couple of hours we took a one-mile hike which was just about right for us after riding for half a day.

 

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Drive to Zion National Park

We spent last night in Orem, Utah which is a suburb of Provo, Utah, the home of the University of Utah. When we checked into our hotel there was a distinguished gentleman there at the front desk and I knew I knew him, but I couldn't place his name.

When we had breakfast this morning he was sitting two places down from him and I remembered who he was - David McCullough. Now forgive me as I'm going to gush for a few minutes.

When I was a kid my hero was Roy Rogers. As an adult I have had other heroes who have changed my life and one of them is David McCullough. He is a historian with a love for our country. If you have watched any of Ken Burns video series he was often the narrator. He was the host of the American Experience that ran on PBS for many years. He is an author of such books as "1776" and "John Adams," both of which I read, among many others. He has won the Pulitzer Prize twice.

As an older person I was raised at a time when we were taught American history. His shows and books fleshed out what I had learned and gave me new perspectives on how great our country is.

That's one of the reasons we're taking the trip we are - to see more of this land.

I'm not the boldest person in the world, but I took a chance and apologized for disturbing his privacy and told him how much I appreciated all he has done and how much I have learned from him. I figured if I got a perfunctory response that would be all.

However, he turned out to be very warm and open. In person he is just as he appears on TV. He even asked us several questions about ourselves.

We learned that he was giving a speech tonight at the University. I asked him the topic and he said the University was starting a Constitutional Center. He was speaking on our country's founders and how they were just ordinary men facing extraordinary challenges.

We even learned that he had lived in Albuquerque in the past. He was a visiting writer at the University of New Mexico for a year. He said that he and his wife loved New Mexico and traveled almost every weekend to see parts of the state. He commented on how beautiful the drive from Santa Fe to Denver was and we agreed.

It was a special for me to meet someone I admired through his work and to find out he was as gracious and open as he seemed on TV.

Now, back to our trip.

The drive from Orem down to the cut off to Zion National Park was beautiful in it's own right. We did hit some road work where we had to stop and wait. Betty caught me getting out of the car to take a picture.

And, here's the picture I took.

Once we were there, the drive into the park is beautiful, even if there are bunches of people here.

Here's Betty at the visitor center.

The Virgin River that runs across the road from the lodge.

We're staying in the park lodge and had dinner in their restaurant tonight. This is the main part of the lodge. Our room is just to the right of this picture.

Betty on the balcony of our room.

Our dinner with the view from our window.

 

Tomorrow, we take a half-day horseback ride in the morning and we're looking forward to that.

All in all, a great day.

 

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Drive to Orem, Utah

We left Boise, Idaho this morning to head toward Southern Utah for our National Parks visit. It was a beautiful drive through Southern Idaho and through Northern Utah.

We drove through Ogden where our oldest, Wade Daniel, spent a summer working with the Utah division of wildlife while he was in college.

We went through Salt Lake City which is a beautiful city along the Great Salt Lake. Just before we got to our hotel in Orem, which is a suburb of Provo, Betty had a great suggestion that we drive to see Bridal Veil Falls which we did.

Here are a few pictures and videos from Bridal Veil Falls.

 

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Second Day of Rest in Boise, Idaho

We took advantage of another slow day here in Boise, Idaho today, Saturday, before we make the long drive South through Utah to the National Parks - Zion, Bryce, Canyonlands, Arches - our next stops.

After a leisurely breakfast here at the hotel, we got out about Noon and drove down to the Greenbelt Park that runs along the Boise River. We found out that Boise State (the team with the blue field) was playing Miami of Ohio which is the college where our oldest son attended.

Our walk took us along the river to the point where Boise State was on the other side of the river. So we passed a lot of blue and orange shirted Boise State fans on the way to the stadium.

Walking back to our car we had a nice lunch at a restaurant, Cottonwood Grille, which was along the path we were walking.

We spent the rest of the day resting and packing for our trip tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures from our walk today.

Looking across the Boise River to Boise State University.

 

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