Day 34. to Zion National Park

Well, as I suspected would happen eventually, I am now several days behind on the blog so I will have to scramble to catch up.

Thursday, September 11th

We were up early once again and rode just over 40 miles to get to Zion National Park. Originally we had planned on doing a 200 mile ride through a small part of the park and around some more of Utah's scenic byways. However, once we got into the park itself we just had to park the bikes, take off our riding gear and set off into the park itself. Just getting into the park was a major feat, entailing some tight switchback descents and a mile long tunnel blasted though solid rock to get us down into the river valley that is Zion canyon national park. People have occupied this area for thousands of years but constantly dealt with drought, flooding and scarce resources for food and shelter. The first residents were tracking mammoths and camels. In the 1860's early Mormon pioneers came to the area and built small communities that farmed the river terraces. Ultimately the climate proved too unforgiving and the communities did not endure. Today the area is a beautiful canyon visited by many tourists enjoying the scenery and history.

Shuttle buses take us into the canyon itself and we got off to do the Emerald Pools loop - supposedly one of the easier ones but proved quite strenuous enough for me.
First we crossed the Virginia river, the river responsible for this canyon:

 Then we started hiking into the canyon itself

 I finally got close enough to a mule deer to get a photo - we see lots of them near the road

We darted under waterfalls

 found the Emerald (sort of) pool

 and gasped at the sheer canyon walls

 The tiny trees visible at the rim give an indication of the size of the canyon:

 We made our way back down to the river valley and could just imagine people living and farming here - all very well on a lovely day like today - not so much when the river was flooding down the canyon!

 As we reached the river we came across these three - you can see from their ears why they are called mule deer.

Once we got back to the bikes we grabbed our little cooler and ate a much needed lunch before making our way back to Kanab for the night.

We love this cool little place - they have been full both nights we have been here and deservedly so.

Mileage for the day: 84 roundtrip.