Las Vegas Day 9 - Zion National Park

Today we hiked in Zion National Park to Observation Point.  Total distance was 15km and the vertical distance is 640m (2100 ft).  Climbed through lots of different vegetation and ecosystems.  Part of the walk takes you through the echo canyon and then you zig-zag up to the top along a narrow-ish trail (about 4 feet wide ... cliffs on one side, death on the other).  We were on the trail for about 5.5 hours in total.  The view from the top is spectacular.  Lots of chipmunks grabbing our lunch crumbs.  We had a bit of cloud cover (first time on the whole trip) and it definitely made the temperatures at the top much more manageable.  It is autumn here so the trees are turning colour (oaks, striped maple and something else).  The colours of the rocks goes from red to white and also yellow.  Because there is moisture on this trail, there were lots of tiny "rock gardens" along the way with small flowering plants.

Other than that, we stopped at a few places along the road for a look at the scenery.  Zion definitely warrants another visit as there is much to see (and Stewart wants to hike up the narrows trail along/in the river).