day 6: banned from the visitor center

today we headed from the grand canyon to zion national park. along the way we went through glen canyon national rec. area, escalante national staircase, and vermillion cliffs national monument. it was a really beautiful drive.

we stopped at the visitor center near the glen canyon dam, which dams the colorado river at glen canyon, creating lake powell. we hear it is a controversial structure, since glen canyon was one of the countries most beautiful canyons, but that is for another blog. anyway, we attempted to go into the visitor center to get some stamps in our national parks passport. for the first time at any visitor center we have ever been to, we were stopped at the door by some sort of security force that resembled the TSA. everyone had to pass through metal detectors to enter the visitor center, and marta was told that she couldn't enter the building with her purse. the last time marta left her purse in the car, a car window was smashed. she decided not to return the purse to the car, but instead to wait outside the security checkpoint in the building's entry way. the point of these security measures was a bit unclear, as going into the visitor center gets you no closer to the dam than the parking lot. i went in, got the stamp, and snapped the photo below while she waited outside. while i was inside, she was asked to physically leave the building because the security guards were so worried about what her purse might contain. i'm not certain what they were trying to protect. a couple days ago we actually drove over the hoover dam with her purse in the car. in fact, we've been over the golden gate bridge with her purse in the car. it was an odd, but brief distraction on the drive today.

moving on. we arrived at zion national park, and took our usual photo with the entrance sign. this time we managed to avoid locking our keys in the car.

upon entering the park we found a short hike that brought us to an overlook that provides a perfect view of zion canyon. this is a picture taken from the overlook. zion canyon is composed of giant sandstone walls shaped by the virgin river.

we took a second hike to the emerald pools, three small ponds that rest along the canyon walls, and successively cascade into each other through a series of waterfalls.

spring has brought a huge variety of wildflowers to every park we have been in thus far, and zion is no exeption. this little beauty is known as indian paintbrush, and appears to grow right out of the sides of the sandstone cliffs.

tomorrow we head out on a longer hike up to the rim of the canyon. the trail is called observation point, so expect lots of pictures.