A Full Day of Hiking and Biking Zion National Park, Utah

A full day of biking and hiking today. We leave the campground around 10am by bike and take the Pa'rus Bike Trail for the first mile or so.

Then at the end of the bike trail we share the road with the shuttle buses into Zion Canyon. The bike ride into the canyon is mostly uphill, though very few large hills. We stop often to admire the scenery and wildflowers (and to catch our breath). We also spend time talking to a couple from Canada and a family from Belgium. I learn that 'joepie' is Dutch for hooray. I mistakenly thought the little boy's name was Joepie, which was written on his t-shirt. This is another park (like Grand Canyon National Park) where more than half of the visitors appear to be international.

Today is hot and sunny so we take lots of breaks. One of the advantages of riding our bikes versus riding the park shuttle is that we can take our time and stop and admire the many wildflowers that are blooming. There are tall oranges flowers everywhere. I need to find out what they are sometime.

Our first stop is at the Emerald Pools Trail. We lock our bikes at Zion Lodge, refill our water bottles (we will drink lots and lots of water today), and head up the trail to the 3 pools.

We then return to the lodge via the Kayenta Trail. The hike up to the pools is hot, but we enjoy the scenery. The cactus and wildflowers are blooming so that helps us forget how hot and sweaty we are.

We have a snack (yummy strawberry smoothie for me and ice cream for the guys) at The Cafe at Zion Lodge before continuing into the canyon for our next stop, The Weeping Rock Trail. This is a short steep trail up to another weeping rock with flowers growing along the rock. Joe stands under the dripping water to cool off.

It's about 5pm so we head back to the campground -- downhill most of the way -- Yea!

We get back around 6pm, have dinner, and relax outside in the shade. Our thermometer read 92 degrees when we returned to the campground.