Disney Trip - Day 7: Zion National Park

Day 6 was Jim's birthday.  He was a good sport, because we spent the day packing up, being glad we weren't doing Disneyland in the rain, being a little bummed it was too cold and rainy to do the pool, driving out of Anaheim and stopping at a Costco for lunch and a little shopping, stopping at a Disney Outlet in Las Vegas and then arriving in St. George in the dark for a little stopover before our vacation ended.  Not the ideal way to spend a birthday.

 

Day 7 was rainy in St. George but it didn't dissuade us from going to Zion National Park.  We stopped at the visitor center and then did the Weeping Rock trail.  Ezra was really sad not to have an umbrella, we only had one along and Emmett was the only one without a waterproof raincoat, so he got to use it.  The weeping rock is probably a lot more interesting on a dry day.  Water "weeps" out of the rock constantly, but on a rainy day it just seemed like more dripping.

 

 

standing under the weeping rock

Then we did the Riverside Trail that stops at the Narrows where people hike through the river for a really impressive canyon experience.  It was a long wet walk. Emmett did really well and Ezra got carried a lot of the way.  They were so happy to get back into the car and warm up!

The end of the riverside trail

A peek into the Narrows

A dry spot under a rock on the Riverside Trail

So happy to be in the car

a tree growing out of a rock

Wild Turkeys

We really wanted to do one more hike but it was so hard to want to get out of our warm car in our wet clothes in the rain again.  We decided it was worth it and we hiked to the lower Emerald Pool.  It is another site that is probably a lot better on a sunny day, it didn't look much like and emerald.  There was a pretty waterfall and there were no crowds :-)

After our last hike we drove up out of the canyon which involves a 1.1 mile tunnel with no light except headlights and a few windows out of the rock.

I spotted some mountain sheep on a rock outcropping

The sheep were down below eating on our way back

One of the tunnel windows from down below

We got back to the hotel and ate dinner and put the boys to bed.  We had enough energy left over to watch a movie.  In the morning the sun came out just in time for the boys to go in the outdoor pool for a bit before we checked out.  We got lunch to go in St. George and then drove all the way home, stopping in Pocatello for dinner.  It was 40 degrees in Pocatello, but according to my weather app it was 23 at home. I had seen facebook posts about snow, and sure enough we crossed a distinct line where temperatures plummeted and we were greeted by snow at home.