Last time I was here, the Virgin RIver was roiling and full of fast-flowing water. This time, it was moving fast, but clear and not so full of snow-melt. Kids were wading and floating on tubes.
One of the things I like about Zion is the shuttle system. They run every few minutes and take you back and forth to town and up the canyon. Unfortunately, as you can tell by the open ventilation panels, they were NOT air conditioned as the buses at Grand Canyon were.
Rode the bus all the way to the end and then headed up the riverwalk trail. The canyon gets very narrow here, but the trail is paved and mostly handicap accessible. The best part is that we were in the shade all of the time and it was cooler in the narrow canyon than in the rest of the national park.
The river is clear and shallow here, so lots of people were taking advantage of the opportunity to cool off.
Also, if you are daring enough and have a walking stick or two, you can walk up the canyon another mile or two. Most of the time, however, you are walking in the water on very slippery rocks, so most people go just a hundred feet or so.
Looks like an oasis in the desert, doesn't it?
One last picture of a rock squirrel family sunning them selves before beginning their day. Rock squirrels are desert dwellers and live in burrows, but the ones at Zion National Park, spend their days begging from tourists. They are very aggressive and will climb onto your lap if they think you have something to eat--I know this because they did it to me once when I was sitting on a rock ledge. They are supposed to be eating flowers, buds, and other desert plants! I agree that they are cute, however.
Tomorrow, I head for the mountains of Colorado to escape the heat!
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