Zion National Park – towering petrified sand dunes called peaks, chiseled into steep, sometimes sheer cliff faces over time by the Virgin River. That’s where we headed this very warm, sunny morning.

On the way to Zion, our photographers entertained us with the following local trivia.

In 2000, the town of Virgin, a community of 400, passed a bylaw requiring every homeowner “to own and maintain” a firearm.  The town’s moniker derives from the Virgin River, named by the Spanish on their way through in honour of the Virgin Mary.  Ask a local, however, why the river’s name is Virgin and she will tell you it’s because she runs just a little bit faster.  Perhaps that’s why they need firearms.

In 2001, La Verkin, a community of 4,000, passed an ordinance declaring themselves a “United-Nations-free zone.”

On a more educational note, we also learned that a mesa is wider than it is tall, while a butte is taller than it is wide.  The things you learn on Road Scholar tours!

Our first stop in Zion National Park was the Grotto with its view of Angel’s Landing, a 450 metre (1,500 foot) tall peak.  A trail, cut into the rock, leads to the top, on the way forming Walter’s Wiggles, twenty-one switchbacks across the face of the peak.  Climbers finally reach the top grasping chains that have been anchored in the rock to pull themselves up.  While my fellow travellers and I were keen to conquer Angel’s Landing, alas there was not time.

Our second stop was at the Temple of Sinawava at the end of a deep canyon.  In wetter weather, the Virgin River would cascade over the towering canyon walls, but today it provided picturesque rapids for us to photograph.  The Park is quite lush at this time of year with bright green spring growth contrasting beautifully with the red of the rock formations.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/64513024@N07/21119421778/in/datetaken/

Following a very yummy box lunch we stopped at the Three Patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob so named by Frederick Vining Fisher, a Methodist minister who travelled through Zion in 1916.  Here we encountered three wild turkeys, and much to my consternation, one of our group had the audacity to utter “Thanksgiving.”  You can only imagine how those creatures felt as they dashed away from us.

After a discussion of fairly basic photographic concepts and dinner at Wild Willies, we returned to the park to shoot The Watchman, a 2,000 metre (6,500 foot) peak at sunset.  Strangely, we were not the only photographers with this idea and we vied for space for our tripods on a bridge offering the best views.

Tomorrow we will return to Zion National Park at sunrise, then make our way to Bryce Canyon.  I hope you have enjoyed looking at my photos as much as I enjoyed taking them.  See you tomorrow!