Zion

We decided to spend a couple of days at Zion NP.  Warning! There are a lot of photos! There are so many amazing hikes to do here. We began early to do the Angles Landing trail. It was a very difficult steep hike. There are 21 switch backs going straight up called the Walter's Wiggles. It was 2 +miles to the "chains" which we decided not to do with the kids. A bit too dangerous. Of course, when Joel got up there he just had to go to the top. He and Corey hiked to the top and had an amazing time. It is hard to describe but there is a chain connected to the mountain to hold onto and on the other side, well let's just say it was straight down about 1000 ft. The rest of us hiked back down to wait for them while playing in a cool refreshing clear stream. We did some other hikes the first day but nothing like Angel's Landing. Zion is an amazing, beautiful park with incredible mountain views, hanging gardens, and wildlife. I have been looking every day for a big horned sheep on a cliff. Well today I saw one in the middle of the road. That doesn't count :) I was hoping to see it on a cliff!
I actually took way more photos on the actual camera the first day and I forgot my cord to download them so I will have to wait to post the Angel's Landing and Walters Wiggles pics.

The second day we decided to do another very difficult hike. It was called the Narrows. It is completely in the water with mountain walls on each side. There is no way out except back the way you come from or 16 miles upstream. We only went a few miles upstream and then turned around. This one frightened me because we kept hearing the warnings of flash floods but when we arrived my nerves settled down. There were so many people in the beginning. Corey and I put this on our bucket list to come back and do without kids who want to turn around and go back! This was the most awesome trail! The crazy thing is, today the water was totally muddy. If we had done this yesterday, the water was crystal clear.
We did some other easy trails and ended the day turning in our Jr. Ranger books that Scarlett and Fatih do at every park. Those booklets aren't no joke! They have worked hard and now have quite a collection of Jr. Ranger badges from all these National Parks we are visiting. :)

leaving our mark at zion.