The Dudley Four: Zion

Zion is one of my all time favorite National Parks (Glacier, Rocky Mountain, Arches and Yosemite are my other favorites). On our way in yesterday, we drove through a crazy storm, and when we got closer to the campground (which is just outside of the park), we saw the aftermath of a flash flood (mud was everywhere!). The river behind the campground was raging! When we were here 6 years ago we tubed the river, and it was mostly a calm, lazy river experience. It was hard to believe it was the same river! Later when we drove into the park, they told us that the road that goes through the park (it is a beautiful drive and has a mile long tunnel we were excited to drive through with the kids), was closed because a boulder fell into the road during the flash flood!! We almost drove that road yesterday, but decided to go around (we would have had to get an oversized vehicle permit to drive the motorhome through). We are so glad we did!

When we drove back into the park this morning, we were amazed by how much the water receded overnight. We were able to hike everywhere we had planned without any difficulties. We started off on the River Walk trail and continued on in the river up into the Narrows. When we got to the Weeping Rock hike, there was a ranger leading a program for kids, which helped Big Sister and Little Bud (and me!) understand more about the process of the water seeping out of the sandstone and about the hanging garden areas in the park. The Weeping Rock was so cool!! We ended the day with a hike up to all 3 Emerald Pools. Little Bud was a trooper and hiked 4 of the 5 miles on his own 2 feet! He's slowly becoming more of an adventurer. Big Sister constantly amazed me; she hiked over 5 miles today and never complained!!