Zion - Day Four

Late afternoon thunderstorm.




Nice view of Zion mountains over a meadow.

View near the end of our hike in Kolob Canyon

View of lion's den over the canyon as we ate lunch

Carol atop the lava boulders at end of our hike

Just a nice view looking out from our forest walk

After spending several days hiking the Zion trails, we thought we should try something new. So we checked out the trails in Kolob Canyon which is part of Zion National Park. It is used mostly by backpackers but there are a few trails that do not qualify as death marches. We discovered a whole new section of Zion and were thrilled that we did! It was a level ( what a change that was!) hike that worked its way through some wooded areas and ended at the end of a mesa with spectacular views of the area. We saw much evidence of wildlife (judging from the quantity of poop!). I discovered some mountain lion skat (a.k.a. poop) that was only about a week old. I only knew what it looked like because the night before we attended a ranger presentation where the subject was mountain lions in Zion. The ranger showed a slide and described what mountain lion skat looks like. Kirk said that I earned my Junior Ranger badge for my discovery. So we were not alone in the woods! As we left the Kolob area a storm came up and we were able to capture some nice pictures of the rain as it swept across the meadows. We were so glad that we ventured out. Kolob Canyon is not very well known and very few people go there. As we hiked we felt that the area was totally reserved for us.