Sunday, November 27, 2016

St. George, Utah and Zion National Park

Yesterday I wrote about St. George, our downtown walk about and beautiful Snow Canyon. Following our return from Snow Canyon we dined on the patio, watched the lizards across the road, the sun set, and we drank in the silence.


Morning breakfast at the Egg and I, and we both agreed it was an excellent choice. As we were finishing our meal, a mother across from us, stood and told her young son to hurry up, we are going to be late. As I watched them go outside, she grabbed her right ankle, pulled it toward her buttock for one second, and the son did the same; she pulled the other ankle up, one second, and that was again mimicked by her son. Left arm up, right arm up and she was off... running. I had a chuckle as I recalled many years ago (in my younger days), a group of us would run in a 5K or 10K most weekends. Once we decided to have breakfast before the event. It was a cold and blustery day and with a wind chill below zero. About 20 minutes into the race I began feeling nauseous... and yes, I did_ a lesson learned.

While it was slightly overcast during our visit to Snow Canyon, today the sky was relatively clear as we headed toward Zion National Park. We were told by several that the park had become so popular that it is generally bumper to bumper, so we decided to head out early. By the time we reached the park the temperature was 5 C (41 F) so it was cold in the canyon. As the morning progressed 9 C (48.2) felt a bit better except for the occasional wind. And to our great surprise, we were able to drive and pull aside to take photos with ease. Elevations in the park range from 3,600 to 8,700 feet.













Court of the Patriarchs
The Grotto
We were now at the end and turnaround point. As we stood engulfed within the narrow perimeter of walls of towering cathedral-like structures, we were somewhat stunned at the amount of vegetation growing on the rocks. 













  



 




 

The photographs don't really tell the tale_ the scale of what we experienced. Look at the cars at the base of the mountain relative to the surrounding in the last two photos. We returned to St. George by mid afternoon and a very pleasurable 16 C (60.8). 

 Enough chicken and salad for another evening meal, and tomorrow we fly.
Mt Hood