A very cool start to the day but the temperature will be climbing from 15 to 23 degrees between am. Its another sunny day and will get to 30 degrees today. We have vouchers to have free breakfast at Porters and I had an omelette and Kerry had the fruit parfait along with some fresh OJ.
We later caught the Springdale town shuttle from the front of the hotel down to the Zion NP entrance. Its Saturday today and as we walked into the NP the ranger said it was free entry (I wish they said that yesterday when we drove in !).
It was a short walk from the entrance to the visitors centre where we joined the huge line to catch the canyon shuttle but the line moved fast so with around 200 people in front of us it only took a 10 minute wait (they are so well organised).
Todays driver of the shuttle bus gave us a brief explanation of what you can do at each stop as we drove up the canyon road and we decided to get off the bus at stop # 5 and
we did the hike to the Lower Emerald Pools which was about an hour return and was also classed on the maps as an easy hike but was a little more challenging than yesterday. It finished with a waterfall that flowed into the pool below but was not flowing very strong. It would be pretty fast at the height of the spring melt in April.
The walk started and ended back at the Zion Lodge which is the only place you can stay inside the NP (unless you want to pitch a tent). Looks nice indeed !
We went to have a look around the gift shop and noticed the best were all about doing the hike to Angels Landing (have a look on You Tube). That hike is only for serious hikers who are clearly not scared of heights or dying !
The views here are simply amazing and the photos do not do justice to how steep and high the canyon walls are. You literally get a neck ache at the end of the day stretching up to see the top of the peaks. Next we caught the shuttle to
stop # 4 and did the short but steep hike to the lookout for the Court of the Patriarchs mountain range which are just so impressive. On the way back I spotted a squirrel looking for lunch in the acorn tree (No photo so you have to trust me !)
We then took the canyon shuttle back to the visitor centre where I purchased my first licence plate for this trip for the state of Utah. Its a good one to add to the Bali Hut display where I am aiming to display licence plates for all 50 states when the journey as a permanent memento of our travels here over the years ! And it only costs $7.99 plus tax (what a bargain).
We then got the Springdale town shuttle back to the Bumbleberry Inn and Kerry wanted to try the Bumbleberry Pie from the bakery for $4.99 and I also ordered a 20 oz Latte. Kerry said the pie was like a home made Apple Pie but assuming you replaced the apples with berries and was nice. The Latte on the other hand was like drinking warm milk with no
flavour at all. We went back to the room and made a coffee from the coffee machine and mixed it with the Latte but it did not help.
We decided to try MeMes cafe for dinner as it was close by and we had a nice outdoor patio setting and Kerry ordered the biggest burger I have seen since I had the Hunker Hunker burger from near Graceland in Memphis a few years ago. She said it was not as hard to eat as it appeared and was super tasty. I had the Cheddar Burger with some fries.
We are a bit tired after doing some hiking for 2 days in a row which we are not used to, so we will sleep very well tonight. Tomorrow we hit the road again as we head to state # 4 in this trip being Nevada where we will end road trip # 1 of this holiday in the quiet old town called Las Vegas.
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