4 Wheels 4 Girls

May 1st, we got ready for our last day at the awesome Zion National Park. It really was awesome, especially that last day. We went on two hikes, and we were planning to do four and a half miles of hiking. But of all the walking in the whole day, we walked about five or five and a half miles. It wasn’t hard, though, actually, it was quite easy, but doesn’t it sound like a lot of walking to you? Five miles? Sounds like quite a lot to me. ( Although we did six miles yesterday so easily that I thought we did only four.)

So anyway, the first hike we did was two miles, (and these were extremely easy miles that were all paved and flat) one mile in, one mile back. The hike went to the beginning of the Narrows, a hike where the only path is the Virgin River. It goes through narrow valleys and it’s one of the most advanced hikes in the country. Since it flows through thin and narrow valleys, it is called the Narrows.

We walked the first trail, down to the Narrows, and it was pretty fun. It was also pretty horrifying, though, because of all the squirrels. People in Atlanta, you might be thinking, squirrels? There are tons of squirrels here! And they aren’t scary at all! They’re just little furry animals with bushy tails that don’t even come anywhere near you! And hey! Don’t say squirrels are mean or scary because I like these squirrels and I’m very protective of them! Well, I feel the same way about the Atlanta squirrels, but the squirrels here in Zion give me nightmares. I might sound ridiculous but they were SO SCARY!! They kept on running across the hiking path, right in front of me. Sometimes they were so close that I almost stepped on them. They were really scary in that way. But also, they were really aggressive because humans feed them. When humans feed wild animals, the animals forget how to live on their own.

But anyway, the squirrels. The squirrels were really aggressive because they have been fed their whole lives.

On the way back from the entrance to the Narrows, there was this one woman who was trying to get her picture taken with the pretty, colorful rocks in the backround, and she sat on a colorful stone or rock or whatever you want to call it with a second one right next to it, almost touching, and a squirrel came up to her, thinking she was sitting there, waiting for the squirrel to come up to her (which it did) and get some delicious, yummy food. When it came up, at first it only came up to the bottom of the rock right next to the one she was sitting on, but pretty soon it decided that wasn’t enough. He jumped up on the rock and sat up there watching her. Then he stuck his paw out and scratched at her sleeve… If I were that lady I would have given up my picture, screamed, peed, and ran! I really was scared of those squirrels…

On the way to the second hike, we got off the shuttle at the Zion Lodge. When we stopped to pick up litter, Ana spotted a gray fox. It was awesome! It was so awesome, I almost forgot to add it in the post!

Ana spotted this gray fox near the Zion Lodge

The second hike was to the Emerald Pools. The Emerald Pools are these seep springs coming from the top of the mountains and making pools when they had to go onto flat land. There was a lower pool, a few middle pools,(which were closed) and an upper pool. We were planning to hike all the way up to the upper pool, which we did, but you have to pass by the lower pool to get to the upper pool.

There were three mule deer along the Emerald Pools trail

Once we made it up to the upper pool, we got to have our peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches that we had packed. Right when we were getting finished with our food, a squirrel came close, so close that I… Can you guess what I did? You’re probably thinking, Screamed, peed, and ran! And you’re very close… I screamed, leapt and ran! And man, I leapt far! I shreiked and took off for the trail!

We headed back down the trail to the bottom and we made it back safe and dry.

That day was pretty fun… I’ll have more tomorrow!