Living just 27 miles from the east entrance and having senior passes makes visiting Zion 'a walk in the park'--literally! Yesterday, for our second day off, we returned to hike the East Rim trail as far as Jolley Gulch, about 6.2 miles for the round-trip. The route parallels a wash then gradually switchbacks to the top of a mesa. After a heavy rain, a seasonal stream plunges 200 feet from the mesa's edge into a narrow canyon. Although we found several small pools in rocks at the ledge, recent rains obviously haven't been sufficient to create the waterfall. A pleasant but not spectacular hike. Not many wildflowers; the only variety we hadn't already seen was fringed gromwell.
Scenes along Zion's East Rim Trail:
The schedule for the next two weeks was posted today: we work four days the first week and three the second. Under those circumstances, being on the job at 6 AM isn't all that bad.
Looking into Jolley Gulch from East Rim Trail
Checkerboard Mesa
The surface of this immense Navajo sandstone monolith is scored by unexpectedly uniform rectangles resulting from crossbedding (horizontal lines) and stress and erosion forces (vertical lines).
The schedule for the next two weeks was posted today: we work four days the first week and three the second. Under those circumstances, being on the job at 6 AM isn't all that bad.
No comments:
Post a Comment