Dennis Dixon is heading West!: Zion Nat'l Park, Day 2/4

Tuesday, April 27, 2021 - Wendy and I visited Zion National Park back on Sept. 16, 2018 (read that blog here), and I really wanted to come back and do some hiking. So I did come back 3 months later, in December 2018 (read that blog here).

So now I'm out in Zion again, to hike some Really Cool Trails that I couldn't get to before:

East Rim Trail

Canyon Overlook Trail

West Rim Trail/Telephone Canyon Trail

back in Kolob Canyons: Timber Creek Overlook Trail/South Fork Taylor Creek Trail/Middle Fork Taylor Creek Trail/North Fork Taylor Creek Trail

Of course Dennis' blogs sometimes start off WITH FOOD! Yesterday afternoon, when I banged the corner going from Kolob Canyons back up to Springdale, I stopped in La Verkin:

There is a wonderful grocery store (Davis Food and Drug) that has a great selection of "food-hikers-want/need". One item I picked up was an excellent "Foot Long Hoagie" for $9.99:

which I started eating for lunch on Tuesday, and finished for dinner at the Las Vegas Airport Thursday!

And although the sit-down part of the coffee shop was not open, I was still able to order my "Loaded Oatmeal" and medium black coffee from Deep Creek Coffee Company:

It was 42 degrees when I headed through The Park at 7:30. The rain-clouds were still shrouding the peaks, and it was a pretty cool 30-minute drive to the "East Rim Trail Southern Trailhead":

I started hiking at 8:11 AM:

It was really cool "Entering Zion Wilderness":

I wound up hiking 19.07 miles in 7 hours 58 minutes:

The "Weeping Rock Trailhead" was closed [the northwest end of the Trail], so I figured I would just hike until the Trail was closed. I finally stopped for lunch at 12:15, 8 1/2 miles into the hike, when I was going down a trail that I realized I didn't want to go back up. I don't know how much farther the Trail remained open, but I had already come through here 2 1/2 years ago in my Dec 2018 trip, so no need for me to repeat myself.

It was REALLY COOL getting there:

At 9 AM, looking back down where I came from:

GREAT TRAIL - note the snow on the cactus:

VERY COOL being at the top of Jolley Gulch:

Once you get out of the canyons, it is generally up-and-down through the high country:

At 11 AM I hit the "Northern Canyons":

And 10 minutes later I was heading downhill again:

By 12:15 I was going downhill into the canyon, and found a nice spot to stop and have lunch:

15 minutes later, it was time to head back. Heading back up to the High-Ground:

It didn't register in MapMyWalk, but I took a side-trip east to the "Stave Spring Trailhead":

Nice Pine Forest.

Pictures on the way back down:

I finished the hike about 4:30, then finished my sandwich and rested (and charged my iPhone). After a while, I left there and headed back down the highway, to the side-parking for "Canyon Overlook Trail":

The trail is a little less than a mile to get to The Overlook:

Easy, and pretty, heading back to the car:

And then, Of Course, it was time to drive back down the Canyon:

O Lord, support us all the day long, until the shadows lengthen, and the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed, and the fever of life is over, and our work is done. Then in thy mercy, grant us a safe lodging, and a holy rest, and peace at the last: