July 3, 2006: Zion
Utah is a wonderland of strangely-shaped and beautifully-colored sandstone and shale, from the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon to the arches of Arches National Park, one of my favorites in the national park system. I'm very sorry to miss Arches, along with Monument Valley and Mesa Verde, but our time isn't unlimited. My family saw Mesa Verde on our long 1968 road trip, the trip that inspired the one we're on now.
As we headed for Zion National Park, I pointed out to the boys the high mesas that dominate this area. Danny, who is 6 going on 16, at first pronounced the arid, otherworldly landscape "booooring!" But then he remembered that mesa is Spanish for "table," and I told him that the word means "tableland" in English. These layered plateaus of red and beige are evidence of the ancient sea that once covered the region, of the uplifting that occurred over millions of years, and of the erosion that shaped the land and revealed the fossilized remains of dinosaurs.
I told the boys to keep an eye out for dinosaur bones as we followed the Virgin River into the park, and for a moment this piqued their interest and distracted them from the elaborate fantasy they were weaving. Zion has magnificent scenery, but it was sometimes hard to get the boys to notice it. They were wrapped up in the games and stories they enjoy making up, or they were interested in the tiniest of creatures: ants and caterpillars, frogs and waterskeeters, tadpoles and pollywogs.
Switching to a park tram that took us to places we weren't allowed to drive, we stopped to do several short hikes. We viewed the massive rock formations known as the Court of the Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - and got a bit wet under Weeping Rock, where springs continually drip from overhead. Our longest stop was at Zion Lodge, from which we made a 90-minute hike to three Emerald Pools, halting along the way to climb on rocks, skip stones, fall in the water (Tommy's clothes dried quickly), and examine plants and animals. Here are a few photographs of discoveries that the boys made:
a cactus,
a beetle,
a lizard,
and a few deer.
The weather was cloudy for much of the day, which conspired with the altitude to keep things cool. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Zion Lodge and listened to a ranger talk about animals we hadn't seen in the park: diamondback rattlesnakes, bighorn sheep, mountain lons, and so forth. We returned to St. George for the night.
As we headed for Zion National Park, I pointed out to the boys the high mesas that dominate this area. Danny, who is 6 going on 16, at first pronounced the arid, otherworldly landscape "booooring!" But then he remembered that mesa is Spanish for "table," and I told him that the word means "tableland" in English. These layered plateaus of red and beige are evidence of the ancient sea that once covered the region, of the uplifting that occurred over millions of years, and of the erosion that shaped the land and revealed the fossilized remains of dinosaurs.
I told the boys to keep an eye out for dinosaur bones as we followed the Virgin River into the park, and for a moment this piqued their interest and distracted them from the elaborate fantasy they were weaving. Zion has magnificent scenery, but it was sometimes hard to get the boys to notice it. They were wrapped up in the games and stories they enjoy making up, or they were interested in the tiniest of creatures: ants and caterpillars, frogs and waterskeeters, tadpoles and pollywogs.
Switching to a park tram that took us to places we weren't allowed to drive, we stopped to do several short hikes. We viewed the massive rock formations known as the Court of the Patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - and got a bit wet under Weeping Rock, where springs continually drip from overhead. Our longest stop was at Zion Lodge, from which we made a 90-minute hike to three Emerald Pools, halting along the way to climb on rocks, skip stones, fall in the water (Tommy's clothes dried quickly), and examine plants and animals. Here are a few photographs of discoveries that the boys made:
a cactus,
a beetle,
a lizard,
and a few deer.
The weather was cloudy for much of the day, which conspired with the altitude to keep things cool. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Zion Lodge and listened to a ranger talk about animals we hadn't seen in the park: diamondback rattlesnakes, bighorn sheep, mountain lons, and so forth. We returned to St. George for the night.
posted by Tom & Debbie at
12:32 AM
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