Our Western Adventure: Day 9

Hello from Arizona! We are spending the night in our 9th state visited. We got an early start from Cedar City, UT and headed down to Zion National Park. The park has a mandatory shuttle system. In the late nineties the traffic in the park became unbearable, so now visitors park at the visitors center and ride the shuttle to points of interest throughout the park. It's actually very convenient and best of all, free!

Zion received its name from early Mormon settlers who thought it so beautiful that they believed heaven must be something similar.

The picture at right is one of many steep sandstone cliffs that surround the narrow canyon that makes up the majority of the park. Zion contains the tallest sandstone cliffs found anywhere in the world. Some of these cliffs are higher than 3,000 feet.

The Virgin River flows through the canyon bottom and is responsible for cutting through the sandstone and forming the deep canyon.

This picture is taken from the trailhead of the Emerald Pools, one of the most popular hikes in the park.

Here, Amy learns you should watch where you sit! This is taken on the way up to the Emerald Pools.

Yet another view of the cliffs from the EP trails. Zion is different from the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon in that, instead of looking down into the canyon, at Zion you are in the bottom looking up.

This is water pouring off a cliff edge into the lower Emerald Pool. We were told by a guide today that studies have shown that this water can take as long as 1,200 years to travel from where it soaks into the ground on top of the cliff to wear it runs out farther down. Now that's filtered water!

Another view of the Virgin River flowing through the canyon where it begins to narrow at the north end of the park.

We left the park and headed down into Arizona. Along the way there wasn't much to see but sand and scrub brush.

We had decided to spend the night in Page, AZ. What we did not know was that Page is where the Glen Canyon Dam is located on the Colorado River. In ordered to get into town we had to cross the bridge in the picture at right. I later learned this is the fourth highest bridge in the U.S. at just over 700 feet. It was pretty unnerving driving across.