Zion to Bryce

When we only have a couple of days to see an area, it’s always a tough decision, deciding what to do and see, to try and hit the highlights, without killing ourselves physically. Our 8 mile hike took a lot out of us, but we wanted to see the “Emerald Pools”, which was a 3.5 mile hike. In retrospect, we could have passed it up, since the Pools weren’t really green right now, more of a muddy brown. From there we walked the Riverwalk, which runs along the Virgin River, towards the Narrows. The river is beautiful in this area, and it was a nice stroll. It also gave us the chance to see a little of what we were missing because we couldn’t hike the Narrows. The Park Ranger said it could be closed for weeks, due to high water. Once we had walked as far as we could, I waded in the river to cool off a bit. The water temperature was in the 50s, so I didn’t wade very long. We would have had to have special boots (which you can rent) to hike in water that cold. By the time we had cooled off, we were pretty tired, but we wanted to stop at the Museum of Human History on our way out. We watched a ranger talk about the Navajo sandstone and how the layers of rock got to be here. Millions of years ago, before the Rockies were formed, the Appalachian Mountains were the tallest around, and the 2000 ft deep sandstone here, came as run off from them. They were the old Continental Divide. The theory is that millions of years ago, a Pacific Plate slid into a different Plate, causing the Rockies to rise up and changing the landscape of the west. The canyon here was formed solely by the Virgin River flowing through soft sandstone for millions of years. Hard to believe when you see how small the river is now. Bryce Canyon, Zion Canyon and Grand Canyon make up the Colorado Plateau, with Bryce being the highest elevation. The lowest elevation of Bryce is the highest of Zion, and the lowest elevation of Zion is the highest elevation of Grand Canyon. Today we are on our way to Bryce. We hope to stay in the park itself so we may have no internet or cell service for days. Our next big stop after this, may be Denver.