Day 5 - Zion - Kolob Canyons

Kolob Canyons was added to Zion Park twenty years ago and is known for its radiant orange canyons. We arrived late morning to discover much cooler weather and high 20 mph winds in this higher elevation area. We knew we would be a bit cold until the sun came up fully but pushed on anyway. We drove up the five mile road to an opening revealing the glorius canyon wall (pic 1&2) and parked at the end of the road for a short hike to a high overlook of the Utah and Arizona valleys (pic).

Our second hike was a bit longer and descended 800 ft down into the valley shown in the first photo. It really began to warm up as we climbed back up! Our final hike was what I thought was the popular Taylor creek trail up to a double arch but ended up being a unmaintained but very good trail up another finger of a canyon. After a climb up a sandy brush area the trail opened to a magical meadow with green grass and orange sand trails carving through large pine trees, all the time surrounded by high orange walls(see true orange color in pic with me in orange shirt). The birds were gathered in this area singing, delighted as we were. The video below gives you a sense of this magic place (our favorite hike of the day):

http://youtu.be/HNtdzhmJZlc

We returned to town, picked up our dry pants and shoes for the final thrill ride on our final day in Zion Thursday, had a double pizza dinner, ice cream and returned back to the lodge for the night.

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Day 161 - JMT Purple Lake and Tully Hole

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Day 41 - Escalante Coyote Gulch

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Day 42 - Escalante Stevens Arch

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