Wild-West Road-Trip: Zion National Park, II

If you ever have a chance to speak with a National Park Service Ranger, I'd suggest that you take the opportunity to listen. These men and women are trained to care for the park and preserve the natural beauty of the environment for the enjoyment of generations to come. Every experience I've had with rangers on this trip has been wonderful.

in the image above, Ranger Ben is speaking to our tour group about how the Sentinel, an awesomely tall mountain feature in the park, released an unimaginably heavy amount of rock and debris between 800-1000 years ago and caused the Virgin river to back up and create what they now call Sentinel Lake. The lake is gone thanks to the cutting power of the river, but it's effects on the land are still very visible.

Here's another view (above) that includes a more recent effort to shore up the wall on the other side of the river. Ranger Ben also told us that efforts to control the river led to some pretty drastic chances to the stability in this area. In 1995, the road collapsed because the river had cut the rock out from underneath and because of its location, many people were stranded in the park for a few nights.

Throughout the tour, the bus stopped at scenic locations and Ranger Ben introduced us to some of the ideas regarding land and wildlife conservation. We also talked about safety in the narrows and the probability of flash-flooding.

Pictured here is a bridge that has been destroyed at least three times by powerful flash-floods. Every time it is destroyed, the bridge is built a little wider and with a little more tolerance to the forces of erosion, but it doesn't take much to imagine that a flash-flood could still destroy it easily.

Many people may not understand why flash-floods are so destructive. The best explanation that I have heard is that the water rushing out of the higher elevations doesn't just trickle down to the river. By the time it reaches the river, it's carrying tons of dirt, debris, boulders, and broken trees. All of this material weighs considerably more than water and acts like a kind of battering ram. Regardless, it's no joke.

Pictured above: the view down-stream from that bridge, the Sentinel in the background.

Skipping to the end of the tour, we all got out of the bus for this view and someone noticed that the only two California Condors known to live in Zion National Park were flying together near where the darker rock and the lighter rock meet in this picture. I took this image with a lens that widens to 15mm. That's really crazy wide and useful for all kinds of landscape, real-estate, and editorial shoots. Unfortunately, the 15-30 lens is not the right choice to photograph birds in flight.

Thankfully, I had my 200-500mm lens close at hand and I was able to get much closer to the endangered birds.

Here's a crop of another image that shows the birds signature white markings. They must have an incredible wingspan in order to be visible at all from that distance.

As we prepared to board the bus for our final stop, I saw this view and couldn't leave without having taken this shot.

For lunch, we went to the Zion Canyon Brew-Pub and I am delighted to say that I have had every beer on this list over the last two days. The laws in Utah are a little strange. Beers from the tap cannot exceed 4%abv, and this definitely hampers what the brewers are able to do given the relationship between flavor and ABV. Anyway, I knew you'd want to know that I was still on top of my beer game while away

After lunch, I took the boys down to the section of the river near our campground. Addy needed a nap and Jen was happy to rest as well. I also took the kids' new waterproof and shockproof camera for some fun water pics. I'll play with that more some other day, though.

Later, after dinner, Evan, Owen, and I went hiking to the Emerald Pools while Jen and Addy stayed at the lodge to enjoy some quiet and some reliable internet. pictured here is the first view of the waterfall that feeds the lower pool.

Here's another view that includes that actual pool. As Evan noted, they do not seem to be Emerald in this particular season. And, here's another that features the window-like view from behind the waterfall.

As luck would have it, the skies were overcast for our evening hike. That's great because it's a little cooler but it also means that most of the pictures have gray skies instead of blue skids. 

The image above shows some of the more character-filled parts of the trail. The narrow sandy passage was not the most technical part of this trail, but I like the contrast of the green against the red. Just sayin'.

The middle pool was not very deep, but it did feature a fantastic view. I would have tried to photograph the scene from the edge of the cliff, but there was a chain and a sign advising visitors to leave the fragile landscape as it was.

I did manage to pull off a long exposure of one of the waterfalls using my Platypod. Keeping the shutter open for a longer amount of time allows the droplets to melt into a veil of water. I'm probably going to print this and make a space for it on my wall at home.

Here's a view of the Platypod, just in case anyone was wondering. The small form-factor means more portability and that's always a good thing when you're carrying extra water clipped to your backpack.

Reaching the third pool proved to be a little more difficult, but definitely worth the effort. The trail was pretty technical in that there were quite a few large rocks wedged between boulders that made it difficult to find a footing. When we reached the upper pool, it was motionless except for a very small trickle of water.

For a sense of scale, note that there is at least one person in both of the last two images. Evan and Owen were also quick to point out that there were an uncountable number of tadpoles in the pool.

A stranger offered to take our picture while we were near the upper pool, so here it is. I'd also like to point out that somehow, Owen managed to put all of this sand in his shoes to take back to the RV.

On the way down the mountain, I saw this and knew I couldn't pass it up without getting my camera out again to take the shot.

Jen and I have been using hand-held radios to communicate while we're in the park. It's a lot more reliable than using our phones and we get the added benefit of not having to wonder about what's going on with the kids. In this case, Jen let me know before we got back that I should arrive with a camera ready to photograph a small family of deer that had come out to the lawn in front of the lodge to eat the grass.

There were twin fawns with the adults, which is something kind of rare. These two were a little skittish and only slightly playful. We all managed to keep our distance from the deer, but it was obvious that they did not mind us at a certain distance. I have mixed feelings about wild animals that are accustomed to the presence of humanity. This land is more wild than it is tame, and these animals seem to know that we don't threaten them within the park boundaries. It's still nice to be able to watch the interactions between the animals and each other, as well as the animals and the humans trying to take selfies with the herd.

I think that pretty well wraps up what we did today. it was a full schedule to be sure! Tomorrow, we drive five hours to the Grand Canyon and I am really excited about that. I don't think there's any internet of any kind there, so be patient with me as I try to figure out how to or if I can even make this daily blog work. Either way, I'll get back to you as soon as I possibly can. Thanks for reading this and for all your encouragement and support. As always, take care!

- Wayne