Zion National Park, UT & Grand Canyon NP North Rim, AZ

We found a very nice campground, Zion River Resort in Virgin, UT which is about 8 miles from the Zion Park entrance.  Full hookups, wifi, pool, hot tub, free land line phone and we were backed right up to the river.  Little pricey but you're getting what you pay for here!

Once setup we hit the pool and then the river to cool off as it was a "dry" 98 degrees:

Then we headed into the park to for a short visit.  Right away we ran into a doe and this little fawn (with very large ears which seems to be a trait of all local deer):

As you drive into Canyon Junction the Great Zion Arch catches your attention:

We drove the Zion Mt Carmel Hwy through  the 1.1 mile long pitch black tunnel through the mountain (little spooky) to a very different landscape from the other side (which included a bonus rainbow):

We were joined by our niece Kelly late our 1st night after a little scare for Suze & I.  We pull into the airport in St George, UT and it's shut down.  Moved to other side of a very large town.  New address not recognized by our GPS.  With a little help from locals we made it just as Kelly was walking out of the terminal!

Our first day we drove up Kolob Terrace Road - nice road to drive in places:

We stopped at the Wild Canyon Trailhead to hike to the Northgate Peaks viewpoint.  Not too difficult 4 mile hike with some great scenery from the viewpoint:

Further down the road we checked out the reservoir (nothing to see here), we drove down the West Rim Trail which required a high clearance vehicle (not worth it) and also stopped at the Lava Point Overlook (pretty nice view):

Later that evening we caught some beautiful scenery around Canyon Junction in the park just as the sun was going down and the moon was coming out:

These were among the highest peaks in the park over 8000+ ft high:

and if you look closely you can see the moon coming over the mountains:

Another day we drove into the park and took the park shuttle bus all the way up the restricted road to the Temple of Sinawava (end of the road).  Shuttle buses run constantly and there are about 9 stops along the way.  We hiked the Riverside walk up to where the Narrows trail (through the river) began:

Yes, the river is the trailhead

There's a local store that will equip you for the rest of this hike: special shoes, hiking sticks and neoprene socks, as the water is 40-50 degrees.  Also watch the weather as flash floods occur here (one did later this day).

We did run into a lot of very friendly squirrels (evidently the fed squirrel is not the dead squirrel around here):

Another one for you GH!

We hopped the shuttle back to the Weeping Rock stop and hiked the short steep trail there:

Kelly & Suze along the trail

The rocks constantly weep water which brings along minerals and provides a source for other interesting slimy stuff to grow:

From here we caught the shuttle to the Grotto where we had a nice picnic lunch before attacking the Emerald Pool trail.  The 3-4 mile trail wasn't too bad and we chose to check out the lower emerald pool which was over-rated. However the rain waterfall overhead at the time was pretty cool:

After the shuttle ride back to the visitors center with a bus load of wet hikers, we decided to go back to camp and clean up & eat before heading back into the park for an evening drive.  We drove the Mt Carmel Hwy through the tunnel again and found herds of big horn sheep scaling the mountain walls:

The layered rock formations on this side of the park are very unique:

On our way back to camp from the park we caught some great sunset action on the surrounding mountains:

Our last day here we decided to take a trip to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona (Kelly's birth state).  We had to stop at the tunnel in the park to let some big rigs come through so it was a good time to take a shot of the Canyon walls:

The views from the Visitor Center parking lot on the North Kaibab side started us off:

We walked out to Bright Angel point where there were 4,000 ft drops with no railings:

We next headed to Point Imperial where there were more incredible views:

We then made our way all the way down to Cape Royal stopping several places along the way including Angel's window:

You can see the Colorado River below through the window

Kelly & I were feeling a little adventurous (her more so than me) so we made out way out on this cliff at Cape Royal:

Great visit to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon NP.  Haven't been to the South Rim in a while but this seemed much nicer and a lot less crowded.  Zion NP was great too!  We're now off to Bryce Canyon NP for a few days.  More to come . . .