Margaret and Richard arrive from TN for a week

We went to Oscar's Cafe in Springdale for dinner.  It's probably my favorite place to get away from EDR (Employee Dining Room) food.  The food is pseudo-Mexican, well prepared, generous servings, and the price is very reasonable.

Richard and Margaret pose in front of Checkerboard Mesa, on the east side of Zion, en route on a day trip to Bryce Canyon.  They had spent a couple of days in Zion Canyon, acclimating to the time zone, riding the complete 90 minute loop on the Zion Shuttle to listen to the recording and the drivers' comments on the history and current status of Zion Canyon and Zion National Park and to begin their exposure to southern Utah.  They hiked all the moderate trails while I finished my week's work, and took an extra day off to spend with them.  So here we go to Bryce.

Margaret at the entrance to Red Canyon in Dixie National Forest.  The yellow flowers were at their peak with a couople of days' rain and warm, rather than hot, days.  I believe this is sage in bloom.

If anyone can tell me what this pretty and unusual vine growing up between the sage and the pine tree is, I would appreciate it.  It was very fluffy but not loosely connected to the plant as dandelion puff balls are.  It was also at the entrance to the Red Canyon.

Here we are at the entrance to Bryce Canyon National Park.  Margaret has been coming to visit me in all the Parks in which I have worked (5 by number), and we have marked the occasion by getting our picture made in front of the Park's entrance sign.  Now Richard has joined in the fun...see what you've been missing?

Need I say more?

The lighting and viewpoints are different from my previous trip to Bryce, but the "hoodoos" haven't changed!

Looking from Sunset Point to Sunrise Point.

Can you see those people standing on the dark rock "balcony" to the left?  They are probably 1/2 mile away.

I don't recall noticing the arched openings in the higher rocks when I was at Bryce the first time.  There is just SO much to see.

Now I understand why I didn't notice the windows/grottos on my first trip: it was mid- to late- afternoon and partly overcast.

An interesting old, dead cottonwood tree through which to view the far wall of the Bryce Amphitheater and the mountains in the distance, not to mention that blue Western sky.  The stories this tree could tell of being ravaged by fires and wind and homo sapiens...this seemed a fitting sentence to interject with Margaret at The International Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, TN this week-end...without me!

Hoodos and grottos from a different angle.

Can you see the 2 people and their shadows to the right of the big hoodoo on the left of the picture?  They  remind me of the autos we see from an airplane crawling down the interstate, looking like ants!  They have hiked a steep trail down from Sunrise Point to the intersection of  Queens Garden Trail and Fairyland Loop Trail.

A close up of one little section of hoodoos and grottos.

...and that wonderful blue Western sky to top off the picture..

People winding their down the switchbacks

My dear friends, Margaret and Richard.  We've been friends since about 1967 or 1968 when they lived in Johnson City.








Another old tree "with good bones" and stories to tell, silhouetted against that wonderful shade of Western blue.

Margaret and Richard in front of The Pines Restaurant, where we had a late afternoon lunch/dinner.  They treated me to homemade pie and icecream and got the waitresses to sing Happy Birthday to me.  Everyone in the restaurant applauded.

The Watchman, to the right of center, saw that we were safely home.

The Court of the Patriarchs in 2 parts.. Abraham, Issac, and Jacob Peaks...

....... to the left, Mount Moroni and The Sentinel...

The sun setting on the 3 Patriarchs with the Virgin River and a graceful plant in the foreground.

The Springdale Music Festival on Saturday in the amphitheater just north of downtown.  This is the jazz group from California that Margaret and Richard and I sat for an hour and a half listening to.

This is the jazz group under lights after dark.

This is the Xydeco/Rock group from New Orleans that Margaret and Richard and I sat for 10 minutes listening to!.

We did have fun.  Margaret and Richard are such fun and such good company. 

Are you ready for our next adventure?

Strangers are friends you haven't met

This is the beginning of the hike of the day, except today I will bear to the left to Emeral Pools.  Angels' Landing is the upper part of the hike that is my goal:  Walter's Wiggles; but after today's hike, I may not make it.

across the Virgin River.  You remember the Virgin River Canyon, that awesome 23 mile drive through the very north west corner of Arizona?

The uphill side of the trail

That little ribbon is the river, and this is looking south down Zion Canyon, after gaining some altitude.

I'm climbing as the trail goes higher, and the river looks smaller.

That's my destination...where the left cliff and the right cliff come together.

many steps to go before we arrive

That's the river down below.

The target is a the base of that wall of rock, and the challenge lies ahead.

This, my friends, is the trail.

That's it, but many steps yet to go

The pools normally are emerald green with algae, hence the name; but the week of rain prior to my trek turned them muddy.  This is a little pool below the main pool.  The challenge lies ahead.

What goes up must come down...eventually.

This wasn't a hike; it was a climb.

Warren, you've been saying, "When pigs can fly" for a long time.

Well, this is where they landed, piggy back!

That's a mighty sheer cliff!

Wow, that's straight up!

There's the muddy Upper Emeral Pool under those sheer cliffs.  The lady on the right was included to give some perspective of the immenseness of the cliffs.

No mountain too high; no rock too big.

Queen on the mountain!

Whew!  Survived that challenge!

Strangers are just friends you have yet to meet.  These ladies, one from California and one from Arizona, were already friends and adopted me along the way.  They were great hiking companions and looked out for me.  We waited on one another at the next challenge or around the next bend in the trail.

I missed the boat at this crossroads.  They went to the Middle Pools, and I headed for the Lower Pools, thinking I was too tired to make that extra 0.1 mile.  It turned out to be only a few hundred feet!  Opportunities missed.

They soon caught up with me.

This was one-way traffic.

Under the waterfall that feeds the Lower Emerald Pool.

My gigabytes were all used up, and I was soon to begin feeling that I also was all used up.  I had slipped climbing  up a very large step ( a very large step for my long legs is A VERY LARGE STEP!) coming down from the Upper Pool to the crossroads of the trails.  My right knee has swollen and refused to go down, even with ice on it every night.  Standing for 8 hours in the Gift Shop hasn't helped.  I finally gave up and went to the medical clinic in Springdale where the P.A. diagnosed probably torn meniscus.  They lent me an ice/compression unit, which has helped, along with being off for my 2 day week-end and not standing for 8 hours.  Doesn't look like I'll make it up Walter's Wiggles!