Critter Day

Jeane is our early riser and was so gracious—she got up, dressed, and drove up to the little coffee shop bringing us all back some of the delicious coffee they sell.  We took our time getting ready before walking uptown to have a great breakfast of french toast—delicious! 

On to the Visitor’s Center where our hiking guides (Jeane & Jill) had chosen the trail we would hike today—the Watchman Trail.  A nice, not so steep almost 3 mile round trip hike up to a plateau.  Before long we were back in the Visitor’s Center parking lot boarding the shuttle for the Human History Museum—watched a short video about the geology and early settlers of Zion Park.  Back on the shuttle to Zion Lodge where we had a spectacular lunch sitting outside on the deck. 

After lunch the plan was to take the shuttle up river to one more stop and then walk back down along the river.  We hiked along for about a hour and a half before I pooped out—the last part of the trek was on the horse trail and in very deep sand.  Jeane and Jill went on while I caught the shuttle back to the hotel.  I’m having a glass of wine and writing a blog!!

Hey what happened to my tail????

To get to where you see all the people in the second photo you must hike up the very narrow ridge  shown by the red line in the first photo below:

Six people have fallen to their deaths from that trail but as you can see from the number of people on top of Angel’s Landing it doesn’t seem to deter many!!! 

This critter was hiding in the hole of a fallen tree.

OK Bird Lady Judy, help us out here with these birds!  We think the top photo is a Cooper’s Hawk?? and the bottom a blue heron??

Didn’t see these critters but saw lots of evidence.  We are off to find some dinner, our last night in Zion National Park.  On to Bryce tomorrow.