Out of habit, both of us woke up at 6:30 AM, feeling (thankfully) none-the-worse for yesterday’s unaccustomed exercise. (Kathy just reminded me that it’s not unaccustomed to her!) Prying apart the Venetian blinds, and looking out the window, I was sure that there had been some mistake. The ground was entirely covered with an inch or two of snow!
Today we had planned to go back to the park and take a closer look at Zion. I wanted to hike to the Lower Emerald Pools and see the pool at Weeping Rock. Maybe we’d hike between the Grotto and the Zion Lodge. With trepidation we walked the block to Oscar’s Cafe for breakfast, the snow still lightly falling, carefully watching our feet on the snowy, becoming slushy, sidewalk.
Instead of serving breakfast at our B&B, they provided us with vouchers for breakfast each day. Oscars was unpretentious, but the food was very good. I had a Zion (read Denver) omelette, while Kathy had an enormous black bean breakfast burrito. It’s late afternoon now, and she’s still raving about it.
After breakfast and a trip to our room, we set out again for the Springfield Shuttle. On the way, we stopped at a local outfitter, and I picked up a souvenir Zion ball cap, mainly to keep my raincoat hood from falling down over my face.
At the shuttle stop, we had a nice conversation with a family from Phoenix, who were also on a one-week Spring Break vacation with their two teenage boys. We commiserated with them about how much nicer Zion would be in the middle of April or the beginning of May. But, with Spring Break, you just don’t have that choice.
When we got to the Zion Center, Kathy stopped into another outfitters and picked up some Murino wool socks. Both of us are pretty apprehensive about the cold when we get to Bryce. Then, we got on the shuttle and headed up the canyon, in the mist and low clouds. You couldn’t see the tops of any of the cliffs.
Rather than go to the end of the line, my plan was to get off at the stops where I had scoped out hikes that were within the range of my ability. Our first stop was Weeping Rock, where the sun finally came out, and where we had our first disagreement.
I wanted to walk up to the waterfall, but Kathy thought it was too snowy and slushy. Together we walked over to the beginning of the (paved) trail. As we stood there, we watched an older gentleman walking down. Half way down, he started to slide down the trail, as if he were skiing on his boots. With visions of a broken hip and a medivac helicopter flying me into St. George, I realized that Kathy was right, and we got back on the bus.
Because we couldn’t really hike, we got off at the Zion Park Museum stop. The sun had come out by this point and it was a little warmer. We sat outside and ate the sandwiches which we had packed for the day. It was really pretty pleasant, sitting outside, watching the clouds cover and uncover the mountains, and a few deer grazing in the meadow.
After lunch, we watched the short film on “Saving Zion” in the museum, and then walked around together examining and talking about the exhibits. Then, around 3:30 we got back on the shuttle to head home, where we read our books, had some coffee and cookies, and I finished up today’s blog early. In a few minutes, we’ll head out for dinner and an early evening.
An unexpected day, that, thank the Lord, did not involve any emergency medical events.
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