Zion National Park

Saturday, we, I mean I got up early as is the norm when we are in Vegas. I get up at my normal time of 6am, which is 4am in Vegas, and go wander around so Bob and whoever else might be in our room sleep. But today, I slept til 7:15 EC time and I was out the door by 5:35 Vegas time. I played a while and then strolled around the property to take some pictures. I'll post some when we return home. Today, by the way, we have just left Williams,AZ and are heading to Vegas a day early. More on that later.
Once I received a text from Bobber saying he was awake (Alex was awake when I left but playing her ds), I went back to the room. We reorganized our bags slightly, went to the breakfast buffet (breakfast buffets are my fav!) And then headed to the pool. As you can imaging, Alex was asking about the pool from the minute we landed. She spent about an hour there before we had to leave. We returned to the room, got ready to go, packed up and headed out the door. The Orleans check out time was noon so we were not rushed at all. Our first stop of the day was a Walmart. We were going to pick up coolers, lunch fixings, soda, water and a few toiletries we couldn't bring in our carry-ons. All in all, we were moving pretty well at a relaxed pace and would arrive in Hurricane, UT about the time we could check in at 2. On the way, we stopped at the Utah visitor's center. I love these and stop whenever I can. We didn't realize there was a time change so it was really 3. No biggie. We made our lunch in our hotel for the night and off we went. The drive from Vegas to Hurricane was more scenic than we had anticipated and was greatly enjoyed. Driving towards Zion was also entertaining. I wanted to stop and look at some large gemstone rocks but Bob wouldn't let me. Something about being to heavy for the luggage. Zion itself was incredible. We were only allowed to drive to a certain paint and then we needed to take a shuttle. The shuttle had large open windows on the sides and windows throughout the ceiling allowing great views on all sides. We had planned to do a hike to the Lower Emerald Pools. It was a pretty easy hike that ended at a falls. The amount of water at the falls is dependant on the snow fall from that year and the time of the summer. It was really more of a trickle and mist the day we were there. We also noted the lower temp in Zion. It was very pleasant for hiking. Upon returning from the hike we went to the visitor's center and decided to ride the rest of the shuttle loop which would take us all the way to the end of the canyon. At the last stop, Bob decided he wanted to go on this highly recommended hike called river's edge. We misunderstood the length of the hike but it was def worth it. Although maybe not to Alex. :) the hike took us into the canyon narrows and you have access to the Virgin River at many spots. On the way back we encountered an elk, mule deer and a very territorial squirrel. I have pictures of him fighting with another squirrel and he jumped out of nowhere infront of me on the walk back. Note to self: don't let Bob take the walking stick when walking by yourself. That hike took us to sunset time and we made our way out of the park and back to Hurricane. We like to try new restaurants on our trips but tonight we grabbed McDonald's and headed off to bed. we didn't even try the pool at this travelodge but it looked like the size of the hotel room itself so Alex was ok skipping it.