What Up Zion National Park

So I have to admit, I honestly did not think I would like the National Parks we planned to visit. Zion was absolutely amazing, seriously one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to, but I guess I should start this story with the trip out of Vegas. Once happily showered, packed up to go, and sub sandwiches in our tummys we left from vegas for the 3 and a half hour drive to

Zion National park. In retrospect we definitely left Vegas waaayyyy too late. I think at this point it finally sank in, its summer, I am with my absolute favorite people in the world, and I am on the open road... UHM CANT GET MUCH BETTER THEN THIS. The drive wasnt bad at all and consisted of some of the most beautiful scenery imaginable. Once we got into the town right before the National park I knew my opinions about national parks being boring... were just plain WRONG. We saw some cool scenery and rivers and mountains on the way in, I asked danny if we could stop but he said no then in that instant he said " wait we have all the time in the world dont we?!" and he turned around to take pictures, it was just such a great moment for al of us.

Things seemed to move at a slower pace here, simple scenery was enough to make you happy, and there was no need for anything electronic... Aside from Irwin, my GPS that happens to speak with an Aussie accent. Zion costs us around 25$ per car to get in which apparently is kinda expensive for a national park, and our first stop was a visitors center. Here they had water fountains with natural spring water, and coolest part was you could actually see the spring the water came from. They have busses at this park that pick up and drop off every 5 minutes and take you to various hiking trails and view points in the park. The busses had automated tour guides that told you all about the park and what was coming. apparently these busses have cut down on a lot of emissions in the park helping the environment be cleaner. We got off t the first stop to view "Court Of The Patriarchs" which was a huge red rock structure. This walk was only like 5 minutes and was amazingly worth it. We took turns throwing little pebbles at each other and acting totally immature, oh what fun, before we hopped back on tour guide bus and on to our next spot.

at this point we were all wishing vegas hadnt ate our souls the night before and that we had left early enough to spend more time here before it got dark, because it was amazing

The next spot was about a mile hike round trip and took us to what was called the "Emerald Pools" keeping in our true fashion we were all acting immature. Justin had the bright idea of picking a thistle weed (which are super prickly for those who dont know) and pretend to throw it at kate and I. A few yards away was what I assume to be was a newer park ranger who was on a hike. She saw the thistle and gasped and exclaimed " OH MY GOSH DID YOU PICK THAT?!" I almost burst into laughter because you would have thought justin killed a puppy or something the way she looked at him. I think I may have seen a tear even. Justin in all his wisdom (thank goodness) told her he found it. Relieved, the park ranger sent us on our way with instructions to look at some really beautiful flowers up the path. and of course true to her word, this path really did have some interesting plants on it. I kept seeing plants I actually recognized and telling kate " oh that is thistle" or "this plant is edible and is a mullberry bush" or "ohh look, that is a sweet pea plant". Looking back I have no idea how I was able to recognize these but Kate found it really funny and entertaining. It was getting dark and Kate and I were ridiculously cold but we soon made it to our destination. COming over a hill and around a corner was a small but gorgeous waterfall that fell into a green pool below.. THE EMERALD POOL. dun dun dun we had finally made it. We took turns taking pictures and looking around before heading back to our trusty tour bus. We decided at this point it was a little too late to go anywhere else in the park but we rode the bus the rest of the way around the park and listened to the facts the bus had to tell us. We say a lot of deer and wild turkeys which I was completely excited about considering I never see these things in Arizona. On the bus ride back to the car we decided to sing every disney song we could think of and letting the rest of the bus (enjoy?) and listen to our songs. From aladin to mulan to even beauty and the beast we covered pretty much every classic. Finally we were back at the cars and had made the group decision to go ahead and hit the road again to get to Arches National Park in Moah Utah, which was around 6 hours away.... A quick stop at the gas station for some mass amounts of energy drinks and snacks was in order and Irwin was ready for directions. Off we went to Arches !

Stay Tuned for what happens next....