Back to Zion

Hi Everyone,

On Thursday, Dec. 5th we drove 25 miles back to Zion National Park in the rain hoping that the sky would clear so we could show Susie the breathtaking vistas in the park. No luck, it rained all night and continued off and on the remainder of the day while we explored the canyon.

We stopped at the park Museum and found the Chapman Arch high up on the side of the cliff opposite the parking lot.

Then we went to Big Bend in search of the California Condor that is roosting there under the cliff where Angel's Landing is located. We didn't find the big bird as we had hoped.

What we found was that there were several new waterfalls as a result of the rainfall for the last two days and the snow that fell last week.

We hiked along the Riverwalk to the beginning of the Narrows, a very popular hike in the park.

Even with the rain and cold we still very much enjoyed the day with Susie.

The next day, Friday, Dec. 6th we awoke to much better weather and drove back to Zion so we could explore in the sunshine.

We decided to walk the Pa'Rus Trail which travels up the center of the canyon along the Virgin River. Soon after we started we were visited by some of the local inhabitants.

We saw the "Beehives" and the "Towers of the Virgin" as we walked along the Pa'rus Trail in the sunshine.

We decided to drive to the end of the park road to see the Temple of Sinawava again and were surprised to see that waterfalls had all nearly disappeared again.

 After we left the park we drove a few miles back to Rockville and found the road that leads to Grafton, Utah a ghost town that as abandoned in 1945.

This Mormon community struggled for about 80 years trying to scrape a living from this land, enduring several flash floods, Indian attacks, and disease epidemics, before finally calling it quits in 1945. Most of the former inhabitants moved to Hurricane, Utah where there was electrical service.

Tomorrow we are moving on to Page, Arizona where we are planning to explore Antelope Canyon😃.