Day 76, Taking the long way home

We tried to start the day out early. Even though we got to Zion Park by 9, the in-park parking lots were full. One nice thing about Zion is they have on street and in lot pay parking all over the town of Springdale and a free shuttle that takes you the entrance of Zion. Then, you walk through the entrance and pay the fee (or use your senior pass), walk to the visitors center and hop another shuttle. The thing about this shuttle is that it takes you past the point that cars can drive in.

We took the shuttle to the end and walked down the Riverside Walk to the point where people enter The Narrows.

Hikers walk primarily in a river bed into a narrow canyon.

After that, we wandered asking along the North Fork of the Virgin River.

We took the shuttle back and got off at the Zion Lodge. We decided to do that rather than leave the park and come back. At the Lodge, there was a very long fast food line. People commented it was taking over 20 minutes to get their food. So, we took a chance on the restaurant. You place your order with the hostess and find a table to sit at with your number. Your food is delivered to you. Ours came in less than 10 minutes. We both had sandwiches that came with more fries than we should have eaten. We got to sit on a deck in the lovely sunshine and truly feel like we were on vacation.

After that, we were ready for another hike. Denis chose a trail that leaves from close to the Lodge. We hiked the Lower to Middle Emerald Pools Trail and down the Kayenta Trail. The Lower Pool Trail leads to a waterfall that spills over the top ledge and that you walk behind. The Kayenta Trail cautions there are "moderate drop offs" so I was a bit weary but in the end, the path, though unpaved, was mostly wide enough for passing.

We caught the shuttle back and just missed the town shuttle. After over 40 minutes someone told us the shuttles had stopped running because there was an active shooter in the area. We couldn't confirm that on the internet but we'd had enough waiting so walked the 11 minutes to our car.

It was parked by a store with ice cream... Denis had Huckleberry, it was delicious. I had bourbon chocolate chip. Let's just say Denis chose better, again.

There is a scenic drive, the Zion-Carmel Hwy, that we'd wanted to take up through the tunnels, to the East Entrance on the park, so we did. Our plan was to turn around and go back down to the park and drive the 25 or so miles back to the campground.

It was interesting to us that there were so many people doing the same thing we were since there isn't much close to the East Entrance and there were only a handful of people going the other way. Turns out, most all the traffic  (unbeknownst to us) was being diverted due to an active shooter situation! 

At this point, we needed to drive at least an additional 75 miles and had 90 miles of gas left. We did pass through a small town with a Chevron so filled up -  didn't matter how much is was ($3.99/gal for our CA friends). We drove on into the night down very lonely roads, into Arizona and out, before we got to the intersection we thought we'd be at over an hour earlier.

By the time we got back, made dinner (even if we wanted to eat out restaurants in these parts close at 8), and cleaned up, I feel into bed exhausted.

The suspect was apprehended. I really don't know more than that. We were and are safe. That's the important thing.