Day 7 and 8

 Day 7: Zion Canyon

We jumped up and after breakfast we took the shuttle back to the stop for the Emerald Pools, this time doing the Lower, Middle and Upper Pool trails.  It takes a bit of time to make the full loop, but it sure is beautiful.

Dakota photo-bombed Micah's karate kick pose...

We went back to the trailer for lunch and the girls swam for a bit.

We then trekked back to the canyon and took the shuttle to the Riverside Walk, which ends in the narrows.  We knew the water would be cold, and hard to walk through.  The twins and I walked 35ish minutes up the river through the water until it got above their knees.  We turned around but Copper and Tim kept going for another 15 minutes or so.  If we had the right shoes and walking sticks, I'd be willing to go further.  But not that day!  It is pretty neat though.

Tim didn't see this deer on the way back to the shuttle.  Know why?  He walks too fast.  Sometimes the slow folks get the good stuff.  :)

Beautiful sun setting!

I built this fire while Tim took Micah down the street to find Taryn another souvenir. She got her something from every place we went, haha.  We cooked dinner over the fire and the girls had s'mores.

Here's cute Copper.

Day 8: Zion Canyon

We got up and decided to walk from the Visitor's Center all the way past the first three shuttle stops in the park.  It took over three hours of walking.  Pretty cool, but long!  Not very long into it, Dakota ran up ahead and then screamed bloody murder.  I thought someone had died, but she just saw this desert tarantula.  It was huge! Micah crept up close, Copper watched from the side.  Typical.

And more deer; love them.

We got to a trail off the road to see the Court of the Patriarchs.  The guys we saw at the base of it said he was just sweating from the steep, long hike.  We were already pretty tired of walking four miles into the canyon but decided to go up the trail anyway.  It was only about 600 feet total, haha, and Micah saw another tarantula she loved.

When we reached the lodge area, we stopped for lunch and passed out for a bit.  When we were ready, with lighter backpacks since lunch was gone, we walked the Grotto trail.

This deer actually came running right to us and then dashed off to the side when he finally noticed we were in his path about 20 feet away. It was pretty cool!

We also took the shuttle up to Angel's Landing and hiked down to the river from it. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but we could see tiny outlines of people hiking the top of Angel's Landing.  Crazy folks.

That afternoon we went swimming again, walked the town, and went out to dinner.  I brought cold fish and spinach, had a minute of a pity-party, and then carried on.  :)