Zion National Park: DAY TWO

Starting with a breakfast for champions: orange juice, dry Honey Bunches of Oats and doughnuts.

Today, we hiked the Upper Emerald pools trail because the Lower Emerald pools trail was closed for maintenance.

The trail took us to the top of two smaller waterfalls where you have to be careful crossing over the water. Once you cross over, the trail takes you to the bottom of the upper fall.

It was very ethereal because the falls were so high up, the water turned to mist by the time it got to the bottom. It was a fairy waterfall. The pool itself wasn't very emerald which was interesting. It was a dark red and black because of the sandstone and other minerals, but I am curious if they are emerald during a different season.

The trail had lots of foliage and pretty terrain which made the hike more enjoyable.

After relaxing up there for awhile and enjoying a beer, we went back down. I think this hike was about three miles total. It also wasn't incredibly difficult, but most of these hikes do change a lot in terms of elevation.

We fit in two more small trails, the Court of the Patriarchs and Sandy Bench trails. The Court of the Patriarchs are three prominent rock formations standing out from the landscape. They pose very formidable silhouettes. The Sandy Bench trail was one of the main horse trails and it was deep sand, so we didn't follow it for very long.

Because you cannot reserve the free land campsites, we were worried about someone else taking it. We left the park early around 5 p.m. We managed to snag our original spot. After another fire, some more hot dogs and beer filtered sunsets, we bunkered down for the night.

The sun set to the left of these beautiful snow capped mountains, and the stars at night were plentiful and bright.