Pilgrimage to Zion.

So today we went to Zion National Park (after a horrible breakfast of dry cereal with soy or rice milk and some fruit (the fruit was good...). It's so beautiful there. And since it's the winter season , the trams aren't running and you are allowed to drive up the canyon. Holly and I went in my Prius, and drove all the way down to the end of the canyon to the "Temple of Sinawava". There in the clearing, you could look up and watch the wterfall with ice chunks falling. When the Ice broke and crumbbled it created a loud crashing boom. Below is video of this: We then decided to hike the Riverwalk to the Narrows. As we went down the trail, it slowly got icier and icier. Finally we had to give up and turn around because it was too darn slippery. That's me in the photo standing on the snow and ice where it still was passable. As we headed down the canyon, we looked at all the trails, and they were all covered with ice on the eastern wall. So we parked at the Zion Lodge and decided to try the Emerald Pool Trails. Since they were in the sun, it seemed like they would be clear of ice. As we started up the Middle Pool Trail, it looked like it would be clear. Then around a bend... there it was a solid sheet of snow and ice. So we turned around and tried the Lower Emerald Pool Trail. As you can see from this photo of Holly standing on the trail, it was completely clear and beautiful for the first half mile or so. Then we came around a corner and there it was... the largest ice slide imaginable. There was a guy slipping and sliding down, saying that it was that bad or worse all the way to the pools. And Holly had no desire to slipping on the ice and breaking her arm again.So we hiked back to the lodge, did some gift shop buying. Then we drove back down the canyon to the Visitor Center. Talking to a Park Ranger, she said that all the trails up canyon were that bad and the only good trail was the one from the Visitor Center to the bridge at the beginning of the canyon.
At the Visitor's Center, we picked up a copy of The Pipe Spring Cookbook: Original Pioneer Recipes that Holly is reading right now (8PM). It's full of all sorts of cool and occasionally gross tidbits as well as recipes. Anybody up for some home made head cheese? All in all it was a beautiful trip to Zion, even if we didn't get to do as much hiking as we wanted. On the way back to Fitness Ridge, a few miles before we got to Hurricane, Utah we turned onto the La Verkin Overlook Rd. and drove up to the overlook and walked around taking pictures. Here's a merged photo of the view with Holly and me...
We got back to fitness Ridge and soaked for a while in the hot tub, then at 4 o'clock we went to the week's "out brief" with Michelle. We all talked about what we learned this week (I learned where they sent the torture experts from Abu Ghraib, right here!) then watched a great little video of highlights from the week. We were all given a copy. A great little memento.
Our dietitian Emily then took us to the Chuck-Arama Buffet for us to test if we could manage to put together a 500 calorie meal. A fun and interesting experience. When I put together what I thought was about 500 calories, according to Emily it was actually closer to 415 calories. So here it is, the end of the first week. Tomorrow will be a semi-intermission to do laundry, etc. Stay tuned for more adventures here at Fitness Ridge!