Framedlight

This last day around Zion was very busy as we tried to pack more stuff in before returning to Las Vegas in the late afternoon. We got into Zion Canyon early to do a trail which starts on the Zion-Mount Carmel Road, so it is not necessary to park up and take the shuttle bus to reach it. Canyon Overlook Trail was my favourite walk in Zion. It had not yet got too hot and there was plenty of shade. The path was quite precipitous but safe with railings on the more exposed parts. After a short steep section you can look down on the Pine Creek Slot Canyon before you pass through a cool cave. At the end of the trail there are views looking down the Mount Carmel Highway, which looked superb in the morning light. You can see the conical white form of Bridge Mountain on the left and the flat topped West Temple in the distance in these photos Here are the pictures, including one of  my nephew Mike, the ideal travel companion.

After the puma talk we caught the shuttle bus to see a few views that I had not captured before. The main one was a group of peaks known as Court of the Patriachs.  You may have noticed a certain biblical tone to the naming of features in Zion. This area had been occupied for centuries by the Native American Paiute and Ute tribes. The Southern Paiute had grown crops as well as hunting for meat and so were very settled in the Canyon. In the late 1700's the first white people entered the Virgin Valley. Initially traders coming up from New Mexico, were  followed by American fur trappers and government surveyors. The Virgin Valley became a route for wagon trains. In 1847 Brigham Young led his Mormon followers to Utah and the Great Salt Lake  Valley. From here they spread to the more southerly parts of Utah, including Zion. Isaac Behunin built himself a house in the Canyon in 1864 and grew corn, tobacco and fruit trees. The Mormons named the place Zion. The first road was...

We returned from the Kolob Terrace Road and parked in Zion Canyon. It was now 6.30pm and so the visitor numbers had thinned out a lot. In Zion you cannot drive yourself up the Canyon road between April and October. You have to take a shuttle bus which leaves from the visitor centre and stops in a number of places until you get to the end of the road by the Virgin Narrows. Very necessary seeing the number of people who come here every day. We waited for a bus which came pretty quickly and were driven up the canyon through spectacular scenery. Mike told me the names of many of the mountains and we got off near the top at Weeping Rock. In contrast with Bryce, Zion has more water features, the river and then pools and places where springs run down the rock face. we  walked the short trail to Weeping Rock which was oozing, rather than flowing, but the water on the surface was keeping a good selection of mosses and vegetation going. The water comes from a spring which is formed where ...