We had signed up for the “Ride with a Ranger Shuttle Tour” so by 8:30 AM we were at the Visitor Center ready for the tour. This shuttle tour traveled on the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive with stops along the way. It was a more in depth way to get to know the canyon.
This is Bee Hive Mountain:
Sentinel Slide area where there have been a few landslides that dammed the Virgin River. Eventually it broke thru and the road had to be rebuilt:
Awesome, isn’t it!:
The Grotto Area – beautiful grassy picnic area with lots of cottonwood trees:
Many trails start from this bridge – from easy to very strenuous:
This is the area around Big Bend:
Check out the climbers:
Can you find them in this picture?
Do you see the circular stone structure in the middle of this picture? Archeologists believe it was a granary used by the native peoples over 1000 years ago. By building it on this ledge, the grains were protected from the flooding on the canyon floor:
Cool!
Cable Mountain – notice the pulley at the top? Many of the buildings were built from the pine trees on top of this mountain. Once they were cut, they were lowered using a cable system.
Organ Mountain:
The next place we stopped was this little waterfall area. Besides rainfall, the sandstone also releases much water. Testing on the water seeping from the rocks has shown that some of it is over 4000 years old – WOW!:
The end of the Scenic Drive was here at the Temple of Sinawava:
Where we took the Riverside Walk:
Look at all the grasses growing on the walls:
Water seeping out of the cliffs:
The start of the Narrows Hike:
The Narrows is a 9.5 mile hike thru the narrow canyon – 60% of the hike is in the river. There were a few hikers that were suiting up at the end of the Riverside Trail and heading down the river. Not for me!
Our return trip:
Deer Prints in the mud?:
What a wonderful trail.
We took the shuttle back to the lodge where we strolled around and had lunch at the cafe.
The lodge:
And this evening, we had steaks over the fire and a nice fire afterwards – watching the sandstone mountains turn colors as the sun set.
Life is Good!
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