A couple of gallons of water and 15 miles later....

Pete and I had a great weekend hiking Zion's. We wish we had time to do more but probably wouldn't have been able to handle much more consistent hiking. We were so sore!


We got into Zion's Thursday evening, had some good--but way too expensive--sandwiches in the park and then proceeded to hike to the upper emerald pool.

As we were hiking up we heard some loud noises that sounded like goats. Once we got to the top we realized that it was these tiny frogs that made LOUD noises! Must have been mating season. Pete's aunt Alyce was kind enough to let us stay in her beautiful home (The Alyce Palace). We got in late and they had just closed their pool but they opened it back up for us and we got to swim in the cool water under the St. George stars.

The next morning we woke up and ate wonderful omelets made by Alyce. Then we filled our packs with lots of water and peanut butter sandwiches and headed to Zion's to hike the 8 mile roundtrip Observation Point on the East Rim.

I was in awe the whole time. Everything was so incredible and beautiful! The information we got from the park said that the hike should take us about 5 hours. But we were at the top in an hour and a half. We booked it! We were passing people left and right, ha!
(on the top)

Coming down was worse than going up because it was so steep. But we finally made it down and had the time and energy to hike to Weeping Rock as well.
We got back to Alyce's just in time to play with the kids in the pool for a little while before Alyce fed us yet again. Then we hit the town...meaning the outlets and Cold Stone Creamery! We woke up early again on Saturday, packed up and headed to hike Angel's Landing. I was a bit worried about hiking this one because of all the horror stories I had heard. I did OK though, as long as I didn't look down...which is kind of the point on this hike. But I enjoyed it regardless. The terrain was completely different than any other hike we did so i enjoyed it. And I felt very proud of myself for accomplishing it...until I saw the 7 year olds surrounding me...then I just felt like a baby for being scared.
(Pete was ready to take a nap on the top of Angel's Landing, but I wouldn't let him. I was too eager to get off that high mountain where I was bound to slip.)

(we saw this owl sleeping on our hike, I could have sworn it was a stuffed animal.)

Pete and I had planned on hiking the Narrows but found out that it is still closed because of high water...surprise. So we just hiked a few things and relaxed the rest of the time which was really nice for both of us--we don't naturally gravitate toward resting or relaxing so it was a good vacation for us.