Zion National Park, Day 3

This place continues to amaze us by the number of people here.  I  guess it is normal according to one of the rangers at the Visitor's Center.  His opinion is that it is too warm for many in the summer, so they all show up for the months of September and October.  We won't be around later, but I guess if we'd have been 2 weeks later, the traffic would have been more sane!

Today we road the shuttle up the valley to a location where we could hike into a side valley to see some pools of water and lots of water just dripping out of the sandstone.  We learned that the trail quickly climbs upward.   It is not a steep climb, but enough that it works the leg muscles.   But we hung in and finished the hike.

The first half of the hike was on concrete or asphalt, usually 6 feet wide.  The last half was anything but smooth.  It included loose sand, big rocks, uneven steps and one small patch of water.   But we made it and neither one of us fell.  There were lots of people on the first half, so it was almost like walking on a busy city sidewalk.

We finished the hike a little after noon and came back to the motorhome for a well earned rest after a short lunch.  Once recovered from the hike, the big decision was "What are we doing tomorrow?"  Are we going to  leave here and go to the Grand Canyon? or What?   More knowledgeable people of the area tell us that the south rim of the Grand Canyon is a tourist zoo now.  Sandy had looked up the camping opportunities and they are full in the park.  In the end, we decided to drive to the North Rim area of the park  as a day trip.   Sandy has never been there and I was there for about an hour or two on my way to a ROTC summer camp in Las Vegas, many years ago!  Supposedly, it is pretty laid back  and no one is in a hurry.

Doing that on Wednesday also begs the question of "what are we doing for the rest of the week?"  Thursday is to have nasty weather around here, with wind and perhaps some snow.  It is to be no better on the south rim either.  (If you've been following the news, they had three major pileups today on the interstate south of Phoenix because of the blinding dust storms.)   That weather may also determine how fast we head south.   (Our tentative goal was to drive through Phoenix on Sunday.  But all is subject to change.)

For right  now, we're trying to relax and enjoy ourselves.

Gene