Quick Trip to Zion

After getting back from Arches veerrrrry late at night, we decided to sleep in the next morning. John really wanted to see Zion National Park, so despite the several hour drive, we were off! We didn't realize until we got there that you can only see certain parts of the park by going on one of the shuttle buses, though. Since we wanted to be able to head back home by a certain time (as well as stop whenever WE wanted to, not when the bus wanted to), we decided to drive along one of the side roads off the shuttle route instead.

The rocks looked like someone had poured them out...there were so many thin layers.

You could even see the beginnings of a few arches here, too.

In some spots you could walk up on some of the rocks.

The guy taking a picture of the lady in the top of this picture said, "Move over just a little...I can get the car in the picture too." It cracked me up.  :)

Checkerboard Mesa is toward the edge of the park; it's called that because of the grid pattern that the cracks make along the side.

I liked seeing all the tiny footprints in the sand. I didn't see any lizards or critters this time, though.

Wheeeee! :)

It was neat to see how the plants growing in such small cracks were doing so well.

It would have been fun to spend more time exploring some of the trails, but I didn't want to get home as late as we had the night before - I needed to get at least some sleep before my race! We stopped at a cool rock/souvenir store on the way back out, then hit the road and made our way back to the rental house.