...little did we know we were entering a totally different part of the world...after Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon, we were thinking, "you've seen one rock, one canyon, one mountain, you've seen them all"...FALSE...the high plateaus,narrow, deep sandstone canyons and rock towers and mesas were all so different and unusual...
...before even entering the actual canyon part of the park, we had to drive thru a 1-mile tunnel that took them three years to build back in 1927....
...the Zion Arch...
...we only hiked the 1 mile walk to the entrance to the 16-mile hike thru the narrows...it sounded like an interesting hike thru the Virgin River, sometimes up to your waist, and thru "narrow" walls of stone...maybe another time...
...while hiking we did see the famous Zion Snail, a tiny black snail, found only in Zion...it was right there amongst the hanging gardens...
...the rain, wind, and the pull of gravity etched the sandstone in ways that only nature can...the huge rock labeled "Checkerboard Mesa" clearly showed "mother nature's" work....horizontal lines and ancient sand beds form the checkerboard pattern with the vertical cracks that have been enlarged by runoff rain and melting snow...the picture really doesn't do justice to the formation...
...the swirls...
...the streaks...
...trees growing into the rock....
...after a long day in the park, yogurt was a welcome treat...
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