May 26 -- part 4, the end of our time in Zion

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Here is a link to the interactive expedition map.



There's a trail right across the street from Zion Lodge.  Emerald Pools.  We walked across the street.  There's a bridge across the river.  Standing on the bridge for the next three images.

Holding the camera horizontally....

Walking up the trail.  We are getting closer to the height of the trees on the canyon floor.

At one place along the trail there had been a recent rock fall.  The trail was cleaned up, but there were broken trees and dirt/mud that had clearly only been there for a short time.

Closer crop of the above -- see the sharp line between dirt and plants?  Clearly the dirt that used to be there is not there now....  The rock face looks brand new, too, I think.

Same place only lower -- lots of dirt/mud.  The broken tree bits aren't all dried up, yet, but it's been long enough that there are small plants growing in the newly-positioned dirt.

This trail was quite crowded.  I didn't take many pics.


Flowers.

Tiny coils.

I did not know these little coils existed until I got the original image on "the big screen".....

Back on the canyon floor near the lodge, about to get in line for a shuttle to take us toward the exit from the park.

I didn't do a good job of taking the "journalistic" photos that would have, for example, shown the shuttle buses that trundle people up and down inside Zion.  Nor did I show the lines we waited in for a turn to ride said shuttles.

In this closer crop of the above image, you can see the skylights in the roof of a shuttle bus.  We looked through some of these skylights as we rode up to the Riverside Walk, earlier on the 26th.

We visited the Zion Human History Museum in the park, and then walked the last bit of trail from there down to the visitor's center.

Sweet peas growing along the river.

To my uneducated eye, these look just like some that grow in my neighborhood.

I am pretty sure there are none of these wild in my neighborhood.  See?  On the ground?

I don't think I've seen a wild-and-free snake more than a couple of times in my life.  But we saw this little guy in Zion.  I don't know what kind it is.  We stayed a respectful distance away.

Very near the snake we saw this big bug.  As I recall it, it was about 1.5" long.

This ant was also in that first pic with the beetle.  I never saw it until the first image with the beetle was on "the big screen."

This was the least crowded time of our day.  There were minutes when we couldn't see or hear any other people.  Ahhhhhhhhhh.  My favorite.

Just a bit to the right of the previous.

Closer look at layers of red rock.

I took four pictures of this plant, and not one of them was sharp.  Sigh.

Blissfully empty path.

Grass and shadows.

River.

How not to feel guilty that we shoved the first people off this beautiful (wet) landscape......

Last pic from within Zion.  I think this is a true geranium (not a pelargonium).  But I'm not sure.

Here is a link to the next post about the Grand Canyon trip.

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