Taylor, Day Six: Zion, The Most Majestic of National Parks

Folks I'm gonna level with you, I love nature. I love hiking and seeing beautiful amazing sights in the natural world. I also quite enjoy sitting. Sometimes napping. And I also live in New York City, so most of the time I don't spend a lot of quality time with nature. This trip, and this stop in particular has made me want to move to a cabin in the woods and just live off the land (those who know me well know that would be impossible because I can't grow anything if my life depended on it, but that's not the point.) What I'm saying is, sometimes it's incredible to be surrounded by the immense beauty of nature. Sometimes it takes your breath away, and not just because you're hiking at high elevations in 90 degree heat.

Anyhow, Zion National Park is (of the ones I've visited) my absolute favorite National Park. It is downright gorgeous. And sitting here in a kind of tired casino hotel room in Mesquite, Nevada make me want to turn right around and just stand in the middle of Zion and stare at the beauty around me.

We got into Zion and just driving through is filled with amazing sights.

We had to drive through the park to Springdale to park the car, where we enjoyed lunch from Sol Foods and I liberally applied sunscreen. We ended up taking two hikes in the park, the Emerald Pools hikes (which is actually two hikes together but let's not quibble) and the Watchman trail. They were both beautiful. We had the chance to get up close and personal with some of the most gorgeous red rock in the country. SO I'm not sure there's much I can say to do the enormity and beauty of Zion justice, so I'll try to let some of the pictures I took speak for themselves. 

These are from the Emerald Pools trail. 

what a goof!

Here we have a wild Morgan
angling for the shot of a lifetime

And these are from the Watchman Trail.

Now I know they say you shouldn't remove anything from National Parks, but I ended up taking a lot of red dirt with me, and I wouldn't have had it any other way. 

Would I recommend going to Zion? Hmm I don't know, is ice cold? Does ice immediately melt in the heat at Zion? Yes and yes so YES I so recommend people go visit Zion if you get the chance. It is insanely beautiful (can I use that word any more times in this post??) and almost spiritual in a "Damn nature is totally incredible!" sort of way. 

Okay that's it from the Virgin River Hotel & Casino in Mesquite, Nevada. Next on the slate, Vegas!