Sunday 29 August: Zion to Arches

Broke camp in the morning and went on to the Emerald Pools Trails - total distance is 3 miles for the round trip. There are three pools - the Lower pools is a fairly simple, well maintained trail. Easy peasy. Up to the Middle pools was a bit rougher but still doable. Oh no worries, "best thing evah" Weasel assured us, he also has vertigo and would never ever go on steep bits. HAH!. The upper pools was a scramble and for someone with vertigo, butt-clenchingly steep at times. He lured us through all the boulders and steep descents right up to the upper pool. Looking back it was scary but doable. At the time it was scary and fantastic. I ended up with sore muscles and feet, totally not used to clambering like this. The kids were like rock rabbits, they bounded and scrambled up rocks the size of houses without blinking an eye!

The mountains at Zion were majestic. That's really the only word that fits well. I need to come back here and explore more.

Virgin River

The girl found this little fella and wanted to take it home with her, pet it and love it forever.
We convinced her not to. This little creature seemed a bit dazed by her love outpouring,
but survived to tell the tale.

A root, worn down by hands and feet over the ages
to a smooth whorled pattern.

Life finds a way, everywhere

Sorry Tig, he was right there. How could I resist?

Solid.

Back to the cars and onwards for the loooooong drive to Arches. The entire drive was awesome, no other word for it. These landscapes are magical. We looked into the possibility of visiting Bryce, but decided against it and considering the length of the drive, it was a sensible decision. The last part of the journey was in the dark, a rather uncomfortable drive for me. I was very happy to have Gina in the passenger seat, keeping me company and helping to keep an eye out for Weasel in front of us and the various road signs. Many road works on the latter part of the trip did not make this any easier... Weasel mentioned to me at one of the stops,

... that my car lights were flickering intermittently, it looked as if I was signalling him. Very worrying, after that I made sure no other cars came between our car and his, so I would not cause other drivers any worries.

We arrived at Arches very late (drove the last bendy road in the pitch dark) and set up camp. It was rather windy in the night, the tent flattened over my face more than once as I lay sleeping - not a good sign...