ZION NATIONAL PARK – VIRGIN RIVER CANYON

Zion is similar to Yosemite in that in both the main part of the park is located at the bottom of a canyon, they  are crowded in season, they have efficient bus service to take the visitors to the various features, and they are beautiful. The main part of Zion in the canyon is much smaller. Early arrivers at Zion in the summer quickly fill up the main parking lot and the overflow lot; those arriving later must park in the adjacent town, Springdale, and take a separate shuttle bus into the park.

 

 

We arrived in time to have a short walk from the parking lot to the park bus system at its southernmost stop. The busses are propane powered and consist of a short bus pulling a trailer similar in seating capacity to that of the bus.

 

When this waterfall runs, impurities in the water stain the rock to create the ribbon effect.

 

 

The north fork of the Virgin River flows through the canyon. Because of the topography, heavy rain in the upstream watershed causes water to rise rapidly, leaving heaps of downed trees such as this when the water recedes.

We first rode the bus to its northern end and walked the 1.1 miles to The Narrows where, as one might guess, the canyon narrows considerably. Here we are looking at the end of the paved trail. Hikers must wade across the river to continue. Many, including us, turned back here.

The trail to The Narrows passes along a weeping wall – groundwater seeping out of higher rock between layers runs down the cliff, resulting in these hanging gardens.

In the lower part of the canyon the greatest elevation differences can be seen.

After lunch at the Zion Lodge we took the Emerald Pool trail up a side canyon to the point where water flowing out of the canyon wall between layers of rock made broad waterfalls ending in the pools

 

 

The breeze caught this small waterfall, providing a nice shower to those standing below.  The next picture shows the same waterfall from underneath.

 

 

I took a lot of pictures at Zion with a 35 mm camera I had just found in an antique shop to test it, so I did not take many digital pictures for showing in this blog.