We spent the first day driving. We went through the saddest town I've ever seen. Some little mining place called Trona. It looked so worn down and deserted.
We stopped in Death Valley, where we camped for the night.
It was so windy that at one point that all the camp chairs got blown over, as well as some of the tents that weren't staked down properly. Heheh.
The next morning, we got to appreciate the valley. I went for a short walk with one of the girls.
We made another stop in Death Valley. We hiked out to some sand dunes. The sand was so warm and soft. There were red ants, but I took my shoes off anyway. So worth it.
I climbed up to the top of one of the highest dunes and ran down.
We drove the rest of the second day until we reached Zion (well, a campground just outside of Zion).
And it rained. Heheh. Such wild weather.
Finally on the third day, we got to go into the park.
We did an eight mile hike, up a steep winding path to get the the Observation Point. It's one of the hardest hikes in the park. But it had a fantastic view. We had hiked all the way to the very top of the canyon.
Here you can see how high we came. We started waaay down there.
Earlier in the day, it actually started to snow. It was very light, but it was beautiful. There was just enough snow in the valley (especially higher up) that it gave amazing highlights to the red landscape. I got so many great pictures.
The whole valley is spectacular. The rock is so bright and colorful. And I saw two big horned sheep!
(Zoomed way in, by the way)
On the bus, I heard one little girl call say big orange sheep, because she misheard.
But my group hiked the trail way too fast. So, of course, everyone was aching the next day. I don't get why they wanted to go so fast. How could they appreciate the scenery?
On day four, we had a free day. I hiked to the Upper and Lower Emerald Pools with some of the other people from our group.
Then I took off on my own. I left the park, and went to Springdale. It's this amazing little town just outside of Zion. It's a great place. And they have a bunch of great rock shops!
The fifth and last day was spent driving home.
It was such a beautiful place. I have to go back some day. Both Death Valley and Zion.
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