Zion (part 1)

 Hello from Zion NP!

We are all settled into Crackleberry Roost (that is the name of the place we are staying).  The people are super nice - and we get fresh free-range eggs!

Anyway, Zion is right up the road, so that is where we are hanging out. Zion is very crowded, they are limiting the number of people in the shuttle system (which you must use to get into the "meat" of the park).  You have to get online at 9AM the morning before and pray that you are fast enough to get what you need.  I get the feeling that there are actually NOT as many people here as usual but it seems very crowded compared to the other parks we have visited.

We had tickets for a 2:00 shuttle on Saturday (yesterday) and were able to get up to the Zion Lodge stop (#5) to do a hike.

Since we had a free morning we decided to get massages.  It was nice to get the muscles worked over after all the hiking and driving we have been doing.  It was a treat!

The hike we did yesterday was a combo hike - Emerald Pools + Grotto.  It was about 3 miles long.  Since we did not get started early the heat was a factor.  We are having high temps in the low 90s here.  I was not expecting that in October!  

Waterfall this time of year is only a trickle.  We later learned that they have had NO rain since last Winter....

One of the pools, there was Lower, Middle and Upper Emerald Pool.
Zion has cool mountains:

Today we went into the park early and did a hike that starts at the Visitor Center area.  We did not need a shuttle ticket to do that one.  

Watchman Trail:

We were not the only ones on the trail.  Here we saw a momma dear with a baby - about 3 feet off a busy trail.

Watchman peak:

Lunch and refreshments was at Zion Brewery - the scenery was pretty nice too!



Tonight we are going out to dinner for Carsten's birthday and tomorrow we will hike The Narrows!  We are super excited about that hike.  The weather is supposed to be nice (90+ F), the river water is cool (60-ish) and the current is very slow.  We rented neoprene socks and boots suitable for walking in a river, along with shoulder-height walking stick.  We have a shuttle to catch at 8:30 to take us to the trailhead.  Exciting!

Read all about it in the next blog ....

Take Care,

Sheri & Carsten

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Philippines - Land Days

Image
We arrived in the Philippines after two bare-bones flights on Cebu Air. Anything over a paper cup of water cost money ... ugh.  We were pretty hungry by the time we got to Manila.  Some of you know that hungry Alsguths are not the most pleasant people!  We managed to avoid an international incident, but it was a close thing! Anyway, we woke up to a small problem, we had no Philippine Pesos (cash).  We had tried three different ATMs in Manila but had no luck.  Now we were at a hotel with no cash. We talked to the front desk when we checked in and they said they had an ATM.  This is what we found: Unplugged and un-helpful! I sent several panicked text messages to my "small gang" - they were super helpful.  Linda offered to wire us money, Joni said that it had sounded like an internet scam ... "I'm stuck in the Philippines and need you to send me cash!" LOL   We kept bugging the people at the desk, finally this nice lady changed $5 US for 250P.  This enabled us to
Read more

A minute about Kentucky

Image
Hello! After leaving Michigan we headed to Kentucky. Our plan: Mammoth Cave and Kentucky Bourbon! First up, Mammoth Cave. Long-time readers may recall our quick trip to MCNP in 2021. We did not have tickets for a tour so just did the short self-tour, getting a small look at this longest cave in the world. This time we planned ahead and bought tickets for the Extended Historical Tour. This tour took us deep into the cave, to Mammoth Dome, Fat-man's Misery, Tall-man's Agony and the Bottomless Pit. You can imagine, fat man was narrow and tall man short. It was fun! Many steps were needed to climb back out, over 500! One of our friends had recommended the Kentucky Bourbon trail.  We were so excited about this adventure we extended our trip to allow time for bourbon - without having to drive after the tastings. Heaven Hill (a large distillery) was our first stop. We saw their little museum, learned about the barrels that bourbon is put in and tasted five bourbons/whiskies.  The buil
Read more

Pre-departure Blog - Diving in the Far East

Image
 Hello! Everyone has that dream vacation in their head, the one that you have talked about and dreamed about for years saying, "we will do that when we retire".  On Sunday we leave on our "dream" vacation! I know, I know, we have been so many places and seen so many amazing things!  This is true and this vacation does not change that or diminish those trips in any way!  This trip is more about the "use it or lose it" philosophy.  It will be a long and physically demanding trip ... not one to be attempted in old-age.  [Whether we are in that category is a matter of what day it is and what we did the day before.... LOL.] Keep in mind that the POINT of this trip is DIVING.  We will actually not be doing much sight-seeing along the way.  We will have to come back to see this part of the world again ... and that certainly is in the long-range plan. Sunday we depart for Sydney.  The 17 hour flight will be the longest ever for me, and pretty close for Carsten. We
Read more