Emerald Pools

I've been home for over a week...forgot to post pix of the Emerald Pools at Zion.  There are three of them, nestled in a vast, sheltered grotto.  Near the lower pools, the trail passes under this overhang.

This view shows the overhang on the bottom...the lower pool is out of the picture below...with the grotto containing the upper pool at the top of the pic.  The middle pools are in the woods on top of the overhang.

A wispy waterfall descends from the overhang to the lower pool.  In wetter years you'd get soaked hiking under it, but at present there's only a fine mist.

The upper grotto is composed of a massive red rock wall.  Upper Emerald pool is at the base of the wall.  Looking up, I noticed some prominent fissures in the rock walls.  Sometime a lot of stone is gonna come down!  I was happy it didn't occur when I was there.  On a geologic scale big rockfalls happen often.  There was one in Zion in the 1990s.

Cool rocks and colors.

Red flowers and red rocks.

Hidden Valley Trail at Zion

Had a great day in Zion NP this past Tuesday.  I hiked several trails...including Hidden Valley, which I had done about ten years before on my last visit.  It's not long...only about a mile...but it's a steeeep mile...rising 850 feet.  500 feet per mile is a pretty rugged gradient.  I intended to go just a little way up the path, but by resting frequently to take pictures I wound up making it all the way to the valley.  You only have to go a few yards on the trail to get a fine panorama of the amphitheater in upper Zion Canyon.

The trail was cut out of the rock in many places.

The end of April is peak wildflower season in Zion.  There were a lot of nice blooms on the trail.

This patch of Indian paintbrush seems to be growing out of the rock.

More fine flowers.

Here I'm getting up into Hidden Valley.  It's a hanging valley, carved by wind and water far above the floor of Zion Canyon.  In the shelter of the notch, Douglas firs thrive in an otherwise semiarid climate.

The upper part of the trail gets quite precipitous.  In some sections chains have been installed to provide handholds.

In other areas, steps have been hewn into the rock.  It's an unusual trail!

Here's a particularly precipitous spot.  There's a dropoff of several hundred feet.  But the footings good and the path is about five feet wide.

Another panorama from the trail.

Kaibab Plateau

After more than two weeks in the Sonoran desert, I drove a little over two hours north of Phoenix, up to 8000 feet above sea level on the Kaibab Plateau north of Flagstaff, into a different world.  Here the trees were just starting to leaf out.  The air was crisp.  And Humphries Peak still had plenty of snow.

A meadow near Humphries Peak, with an old wood fence, constructed in the mid 20th century when the area was used for ranching.

Classic Grand Canyon shot.   Notice the tip of weather resistant sandstone on the feature in the middle of the picture.

Same picture as above...loaded it twice by mistake.  But it's a nice scene.  At the canyon, I like to find a nice rock, well off the trail, and just sit and soak in the beauty, majesty, and mysticism of the scene.  The GC is a power spot!  So is Crater Lake; Yosemite Valley from its rim; a majestic old growth redwood grove.

A look into the inner gorge of the canyon.  The Vishnu schist rock here is black, jagged, and primeval.  It is up to 1.8 billion years old.

The Lizards are livin' on the edge!

Nice late afternoon colors.

Life is hard for plants on the rim.  But they add to the primeval beauty of the scene.

I secured a motel room in the park, so didn't have to drive far to set up happy hour on the rim.  The Lizards joined in with their friend John Jameson!

While it's hard for trees to survive on the canyon rim, when they die they're sure gorgeous!  Especially in the evening light.  You could stay around the canyon for weeks just taking pictures.  The beauty and diversity of landforms and lifeforms are unlimited.  Not only that, the same scene, the same plant, changes several times a day with the light.  The GC is an artists nirvana.