Western Parks Trip--Day 8, Sunday, August 16, 2015

We slept wonderfully, but David continued to require frequent toilet visits and insisted that Kathie and I go ahead to Zion by ourselves.

It took us almost an hour to arrive at the Visitors Center partly because there is a 1.1 mile-long tunnel with only 8-9 vehicles being allowed into the tunnel at the same time.  There are numerous 25 mph curves along the 12-mile stretch from our campsite just outside the Park’s entrance, too.  We encountered families of long-horned sheep skipping across the rock faces and one more spectacular vista after another.  As we drove, we promised ourselves we’d stop to photo on our way back some of the most spectacular sights.

We rode the narrator-led trolley up the canyon road for 45 minutes noting areas we wanted to stop at on the way back.  It’s a hop-on/hop-off trolley running every 5-10 minutes powered by propane engines.  There is a major effort to control pollution  in Zion and only trolleys or campers with permits run the canyon floor. 

No matter what I do to get this pix rotated, it will not cooperate with me.  So turn your device on its side to see me beside the Weeping Rock!!

Our first walking trail was at Weeping Rock, an easy 1/2 mile steep walk up a paved path along many different species of plants which have placards explaining “their uniqueness.  Mosses, maples and moon weeds grow in abundance until you get to the “weeping’” rocks, an overhang of porous sandstone which “weeps” springs. We learned later some of the water which weeps through these rocks is over 100 years old!

We continued on the “down” trolley to the Grotto, where we ate the picnic lunch we’d brought along.  We walked the grotto trail, again an easy 1/4 mile meander.  We encountered three turkeys in the wooded area along this path. 

The turkeys are below!!

We caught the trolley to the  Court of the Patriarchs, three tall sandstone mountains named  for three old Testament figures, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by a Methodist minister, Frederick Vining Fisher in 1916.  They hold court over Birch Creek Canyon of the Virgin River.

Left to right--Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

From there we trolleyed to the Zion Human History Museum to watch a film about the development of the mountains and naming of the Park.  We also listened to Ranger Jay's talk on the Water, Rocks and Time and how the whole area was formed by water and wind over millions of years and how much the dearth of rainfall, especially in the last 10-15 years, has affected the area—climate change.  No one was brave enough to ask the question about how to stop climate change!!!!

At the edge is the Western Temple at 7810 ft, highest in Zion; in the center is Altar of Acrifice at 7505ft and on right edge is Beehives at 6904.

We took our last trolley ride to the Visitors Center and got in RBII to head back to camp.  We stopped several times along the way out of the park for the pix we’d promised ourselves earlier.  We encountered a big horn sheep posing on the rocks beside the road.

We were amazed by the Arch, and Checkerboard Mesa.

The Mesa is Navajo sandstone which has been created by wind and time.  The horizontal lines called crossbedding represent layers of windblown sand that built into sand dunes.  The dunes were then buried, and the sand grains glued together by calcite and iron oxide to form sandstone. The vertical lines are actually shallow cracks that result from erosion and stress on the rock surface. These cracks are probably the result of expansion and contraction, temperature changes, wetting/drying or a combination of these processes.

When we got back to camp and David was feeling much better, praise the Lord!!