Fall Break: Zion National Park Day 2

Finally getting around to sharing some more shots from the trip me and the girls took to Zion National Park back in October. These shots are from the second day in the park. The girls decided that we should definitely hike the Emerald Pools trail, despite concerns about cliffs, waterfalls and treacherous footing. There are three pools, lower, middle and upper. The lower pool is really a very tiny pond and the middle is a tiny trickle. The real pool is the upper pool and the trail gets markedly more difficult (but not that bad) toward the top of the trail. The girls were terrified of this trail and once we crossed the bridge, it was clear that their concerns were gone and I hoped they would love it.

It’s pretty clear they hated it:

We even got a rare group shot, thanks to kindly fellow hikers:

As near the lower Emerald Pool, the trail passes under a waterfall, and I realized that I’d never shot this location with a wide lens:

After the lower pool, the trail ascends quickly, takes a turn or two and has a great vantage point. So we stopped to shoot toward the middle Emerald Pool:

Marlo joined in:

Those two images looking across to the middle pool are Marlo shots. The kid can shoot! Her sense of composition is awesome. I didn’t do any work on the images, just the Lightroom import auto tone that happens with any photo I bring into Lightroom. The angle of the shot and the wide angle lens make the position look far more precarious than it is in real life.

The girls lost all their fear and pushed on, driven to make it to the upper pool:

We stayed a long time at the upper pool, because the girls were having a great time:

I don’t know that I expected the girls to enjoy themselves as much as they did. I always try to be careful with my expectations when sharing experiences, especially when we do things that I used to do as a kid. As I said in my last post about our Zion trip,  I had to let go of the trips from my childhood and allow my girls to make new memories. On the way back down, I stopped to shoot some great vistas, including a shot of the girls trying not to get wet under the waterfall at the lower pool. We finished the trail and got lunch. Then we walked around, saw a deer (another Marlo shot!) and played by the Virgin River:

This was such a great trip and one that I’ll always remember. I can only hope my girls feel the same way. Early signs point toward a return trip, with the girls saying, and this is verbatim from Leta, “The next time, we are going to rent bikes, and ride horses, right, Dad?”

Right. I can’t wait!