windy Zion

Oh! The wind never stopped blowing today, and it was pretty chilly with temperatures in the high 30s to low 40s. Denise started out with lots of light layers then shed most of them. She said that walking (uphill!) warmed her up pretty quickly. I was warm enough too - I rode in the camera bag, popping out when there was something interesting to see.

First we started with a good breakfast at the Zion Canyon B&B. It started with granola and fruit over yogurt. Next, tasty waffles and some eggs for extra protein. Denise sat and chatted for a bit, and then we headed into the park.

Today's wanders were a mix of just wandering along the Virgin River and of hiking parts of two trails. The Sand Bench Loop was new for us. I understand it is mainly a horse trail in the summer. Luckily it isn't summer to it was quite walkable. There were good views of the Court of the Patriarchs. That was a good starting point since it was a relatively flat trail other than a small amount of up at the beginning.

Denise wanted to hike the Angel's Landing trail as far as Scout's Lookout. I could probably go the end to Angel's Landing but Denise doesn't like exposure so we always head out on the West Rim Trail when we get to Scout's Lookout. Not today though... A ranger in the visitor center told us that the top three pieces of Walter's Wiggles are icy, so it sounded like we would need to stop before the top. You've never heard of Walter's Wiggles? They are a series of 21 short switchbacks on the trail just before reaching Scout's Lookout. That's a very cool name, isn't it? When I heard there was ice up there I knew that's where we would turn and head back down. The first part of the trail was in the sun on the way up. It felt warm then, probably because we were gaining elevation pretty fast. Then we turned into Refrigerator Canyon, brrr! Denise grabbed her windbreaker and her hat and mittens, and I jumped back into the camera bag for that part of the hike. Even though we turned back at Walter's Wiggles it was a really good hike. I'm glad we hiked that trail today - it's really beautiful.

The air was pretty nippy today. Blue sky and red rocks kept us focused on wandering, and walking kept us warm. It was a good day at Zion.

--- Rover