{"id":656,"date":"2009-07-19T00:16:25","date_gmt":"2009-07-19T04:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/?p=656"},"modified":"2009-07-19T00:22:55","modified_gmt":"2009-07-19T04:22:55","slug":"an-enlightening-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/2009\/07\/19\/an-enlightening-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"An Enlightening Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"mountain

One of many hillside letters<\/p><\/div>\n

The next stop on our whirlwind tour was going to bring us to the great state of Utah and Zion National Park<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 Leaving Yellowstone was bittersweet.\u00a0 We enjoyed everything about our stay in Wyoming, making us sorry to leave but with great hopes that Zion was as good if not better than we heard.\u00a0 The drive from Wyoming to Utah was, well, boring.\u00a0 Dry, flat fields were replaced by more dry flat fields for most of our travels.\u00a0 Part way into Utah, however, it all changed.\u00a0 Hello again, Rocky Mountains!\u00a0 Having nothing like this on the east coast, I pointed out every new and cool rock formation as well as all the hillside letters we found.\u00a0 (No, they are not some Government code as we first suspected.\u00a0 Started by proud Berkley College students in 1905, there are now more than 400 hillside letters in the US, most of them in the western states).\u00a0 After making it through the rush hour traffic of Salt Lake City, we had a quick stopover at our Marriott hotel in Draper UT. \u00a0Relaxed from the pool and spa, our clothes were clean and we were clean with full bellies, we hit the road for Zion.<\/p>\n

The drive became more interesting every mile closer to Zion.\u00a0 Before we knew it, we hit Springdale UT, a small tourist town at the gates of Utah’s first national park.\u00a0 I was like a kid in a candy store looking at all the shops and cool trinkets.\u00a0 We checked into our riverside campsite in the park first and then returned to Springdale for some dinner and window shopping.\u00a0 We headed for a Mexican restaurant but when we missed the driveway we landed at Pizza and Noodle Co. instead.\u00a0 Best mistake we made that day!\u00a0 Excellent food, cool atmosphere and reasonable prices \u2013 two thumbs up!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"View

View from our camp<\/p><\/div>\n

Then it was back to the campsite only 5 minutes away for a relaxing campfire.\u00a0 I thought booking a site near the river would be pretty and I love the sound of the gentle current over the rocks.\u00a0 I did not, however, take into account the 8 billion trillion bugs that came along with such a view.\u00a0 Our campfire was short lived before we retreated inside in fear of something flying up my nose.<\/p>\n

\"den

Happy campers!<\/p><\/div>\n

Zion was truly a visitor-friendly park.\u00a0 Free shuttles ran all day and into the evening, taking hikers, riders, walkers and bikers to different points of the park saving hours of traffic jams by confused tourists.\u00a0 The shuttle stop was a quick walk from our campsite.\u00a0 Armed with a map and a plan but no hiking gear, we took the shuttle about \u00bd way up to the lodge to take a short, 1.3 mile hike to Emerald Pools.\u00a0 It was surreal being at the bottom of the canyon, with rich red rocks shaped by nature as far as you could see.\u00a0 About \u00bd way through the lower pools hike, we noticed the signs for the middle pools with a waterfall coming off the rocks.\u00a0 Sure, let\u2019s keep going, we all agreed.\u00a0\u00a0 It was only 98 degrees and no one was complaining\u2026yet\u2026so we continued to hike into more amazing scenery.\u00a0\u00a0 We passed a family on the way down who told Dennis the best swimming would be found at the Upper Emerald Pool.\u00a0 By the time we got to the trail junction for the upper pool, we were all very hot and ready for a dip.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Hi

Hi Mom<\/p><\/div>\n

The sign told us our destination was only 0.3 miles away.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t tell us that it was straight uphill climbing over rocks.\u00a0 Luke and I fell far behind, taking our time as to not keel over and die.\u00a0 When we finally passed the \u201cNo Swimming\u201d sign, there it was Upper Emerald Pool filled with illiterate folks swimming, including my husband and son.\u00a0 They swore they never saw the sign but fate is a bitch.\u00a0 I\u2019ll come back to this later.<\/p>\n

I chose not to swim, not because of the sign but because I was too busy complaining to Dennis that I was hot and tired.\u00a0 It took a little coaxing to get Luke to join Cam but once they were in the water, he was never coming out again.\u00a0\u00a0 We booked a ranger-lead tour in the evening so we were under time constraints to get back to camp and get ready to head out again.<\/p>\n

The tour was a 2 hour ride through the park as a Ranger talked about some of the finer points of Zion.\u00a0 It promised to make stops unavailable on the regular shuttle.\u00a0 Educational, off the beaten path, scenic and all we had to do was ride around and listen, I thought this would be great and it was.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Beautiful

Beautiful scenery<\/p><\/div>\n

Our tour guide told us of how this dessert, like the Grand Canyon, was carved out from powerful waters millions of years ago.\u00a0 She talked about the animals that live in the area and what makes them unique to this area.\u00a0 It was at this point that Dennis\u2019s curiosity got the best of him and he asked the Ranger why swimming wasn\u2019t allowed in the Emerald Pools.\u00a0 A friend of mine once told me not to ask questions if you really don\u2019t want the answers.\u00a0\u00a0 She should have given Dennis that same advice.\u00a0 The ranger repeated the question for the benefit of everyone on the bus.\u00a0 \u201cGood question\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0First she explained about the importance of not disrupting a fragile ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then she said the words that will haunt Dennis the rest of his life.\u00a0 \u201cThe main reason is because the bottom of the pools are covered with fecal matter from the wildlife in the park.\u201d\u00a0 The next minute was a bit of a blur because I was trying too hard to hold back my laughter I couldn\u2019t focus.\u00a0 I looked at Dennis, who was pale at this point, mouthing the words \u201cfecal matter\u201d over and over again in disbelief.\u00a0 Being the sympathetic wife I am, I said \u201cHA!\u00a0 I\u2019m glad I didn\u2019t swim!\u00a0 That will teach you to follow the signs next time\u201d and let my laughter rip!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Enjoying

Enjoying the tour<\/p><\/div>\n

It only got better when Dennis had to explain to the boys what fecal matter was.\u00a0 The kids didn\u2019t seem fazed but Dennis will never forget the lesson he learned that day.Dennis showered as soon as we got back to camp.\u00a0 We opted to skip the fire and went to town for some supplies and ice cream.\u00a0 Ice cream makes everything better\u2026except the thought of fecal matter.\u00a0\u00a0 LOL!<\/p>\n

To see all our photos from Zion, visit Snapfish.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The next stop on our whirlwind tour was going to bring us to the great state of Utah and Zion National Park.\u00a0\u00a0 Leaving Yellowstone was bittersweet.\u00a0 We enjoyed everything about our stay in Wyoming, making us sorry to leave but with great hopes that Zion was as good if not better than we heard.\u00a0 The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63,27,35,102],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=656"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":670,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656\/revisions\/670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}