An Afternoon in Zion

Yesterday, Bryce, Piper and I spent the afternoon in Zion National Park. We're lucky; it's only a 45 minute drive from our house. I've been wanting to go ever since 2005, when we went with Jacob and April. We got an annual pass, so now we can go whenever I, um, I mean we, want to.

Bryce took me through this tunnel since I had never been through it before. It was built in 1930. Before that, Highway 9 basically dead-ended right there. They first drilled in "windows" to let light into the tunnel, then began building.

On the other side of the mountain, you can see one of the "windows" that lets light into the tunnel. It's pretty cool.

Although you can't tell, this part of the mountain is actually "weeping". That's when water drips directly out of the rock. If I remember correctly, the snow from winter seeps into the porous top of the mountain and "weeps" or seeps out at the bottom. You can see a lot of this throughout Zion.

Here's Enormous Me in front of the weep. Okay, so I'm not THAT enormous, but honey, I seriously feel like it. And I'm not even close to having this child yet.

We did the Riverside Walk. It was the perfect hike for an out-of-shape pregnant chick. It was alongside the Virgin River. At the end, Bryce took Piper out by the river to let her play in the water.

She had fun splashing and throwing mud. You could tell she had fun because of all the sand in her hair and mud on her pants.

Piper sharing the wealth of her goldfishies.

This foliage lasted for a long part of the hike. It's beautiful and smells nice too.

Views of the Virgin River.

Walking back down the trail. And thank goodness too; baby was bouncing on my slightly full bladder and my out-of-shape legs were starting to get just a little stiff. Still a nice view though, eh?