Theresa · Mather

Yesterday, we took the day off and went to Zion since the weather was nice. I've never seen so much snow that low down around here and there was about 6-8 inches all over the canyon floor and bands of white and icicles festooned the canyon walls. Of course we didn't bother to take a camera because "we have plenty of winter pics of Zion"...my bad.
The trails usually ice up and become treacherous when it's cold but the snow was crunchy so the trails weren't too slippery. The ones we took weren't opened the whole length because of falling icicles. We did get to witness some ice falls including one way up a cliff face. The icicles must have been 20 or 30 feet long but looked small from where we were. They make a loud crash as they fall, and something fell somewhere that made a sound like thunder and made the ground actually shake. It was bigger than the usual clattering boulders you hear drop in summer, whatever it was.
I saw a really pretty road runner and a huge flock of turkeys, but no deer this time. The park was rather busy- apparently the big piles of snow up north have driven a lot of Utah retirees south for some sunshine. Also, lots of Nevadans take a day trip from Vegas to see snow. There are few times of year any more where the park doesn't have a good number of people in it. Sometimes, it's "amusement park" crowded. We usually avoid it at those times of year unless we have to take guests.
We bought a new annual pass for the national parks system (they're only $80) and plan to give this one as much of a workout as the last.
I have to remember from now on to bring a camera, no matter how many pictures we already have!