Las Vegas Trip 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
After a great weekend exploring Zion National Park, Amanda and I decided to stick around a bit longer on Monday morning before starting our drive to Las Vegas.
I visited the Court of the Patriarchs in the morning to catch the sunrise. I was worried for a bit that the clouds to the east would block the early morning light, but I ended up getting this spotlighting on the large sandstone formations above the Virgin River.
Court of the Patriarchs by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
After some breakfast we hiked the Emerald Pools trail before leaving the park. This sidewalk lead around the lower pools and under the small waterfalls above.
Emerald Sidewalk by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Looking up at the small waterfalls pouring over the sandstone.
Emerald Falls by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
The nice view as we hiked up to the upper pool.
Emerald Pools View by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
There was still a patch of snow lingering next to the upper pool.
Upper Emerald Pool by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
This waterfall high above was falling into the upper pool.
Upper Fall by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
A black and white photo of one of the lower waterfalls backlit and behind some tree branches.
Waterfall Through Branches by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Looking up and through one of the lower waterfalls on our hike back down.
Under the Fall by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
A view of the Virgin River and Zion Canyon as we walked across the bridge back to the trailhead.
Virgin River by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
When we reached the car again it was time for us to start our journey towards Nevada. After leaving Zion, we made our way over to Washington so we could grab some burgers from In & Out for lunch 😉
Before leaving Utah and entering Arizona, we had one more stop to make at the Bloomington Petroglyph Park. This is probably one of the more unusual areas I have ever visited petroglyphs at since the large boulders containing the petroglyphs are right in the middle of a subdivision and surround by houses! Thankfully the city had the good sense to help preserve these petroglyphs by turning them into a park. There’s even a sign and everything!
Bloomington Petroglyph Park by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
There are a lot of interesting petroglyphs found on this large boulder right in the middle of this neighborhood.
Neighborhood Boulder by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
A closer look at another side of the large boulder.
Lower Boulder by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
This was a pretty large spiral.
Large Spiral by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
Looking up at a few more designs pecked into this boulder.
Bloomington Designs by IntrepidXJ, on Flickr
After leaving the Petroglyph Park we quickly crossed over into Arizona and then into Nevada. The rest of our drive to Las Vegas was pretty uneventful and we were checking into our room at the Stratosphere in no time!
Visiting Zion National Park without huge crowds was pretty nice, but I can certainly see why visiting in the fall when the colors are changing color would be an amazing time to visit the park. I guess I’ll have to return during the fall in the future…even though the crowds will probably be much larger.