Summer Vacation Trip - Day 14

We were up by 0545.  The night before, I’d thought about getting breakfast in Hatch but it was clear that would delay us.  Mollie was excited to get going immediately because I’d promised her a horse riding adventure at Zion National Park.  The drive was over an hour, so we left the hotel at around 0630 and drove south on US-89 until we reached UT-9.  We ate our breakfast (snacks) in the car.  The early departure allowed us to pass through the eastern entrance to Zion with almost no other people nearby.  As had happened to us several times on the trip, the gate was unmanned when we got there (around 0730).  We continued through the park until we reached Springdale and parked in the huge parking lot at the Visitor Center at 0800.  I’d researched the process prior to our arrival and knew that a shuttle bus was usually required to enter the park.  The park was very popular but I thought I’d built in enough time (almost an hour) to ensure we’d get to the stables in time.  However, by the time we located the shuttle bus stop, it turned out to already be populated by a huge crowd of people.  Although the line was moving fast (a bus came by about every ten minutes, and it was a double shuttle), we quickly realized that we were not going to make it to the corral before the 0830 check in time.  I asked Mollie to call the reservation office to let them know that we might be late, and, to our surprise, they said they would give us a parking pass (i.e., not have to wait in the shuttle bus line).  We ran back to our car and sped onto the shuttle-only road that would take us to the corral.  We made it to the stables at Emerald Pools trailhead by 0825 and Mollie was very relieved.  They had us pay and sign liability waivers, and then we had to wait until 0845 to be assigned a horse.  In the meantime, we prepped for the hike by hydrating, applying sunscreen and bug spray, and sitting around.  I had a “funny” experience with impatient people from Virginia waiting to use the bathroom (there was only one key and I had it, much to their chagrin).  The time to mount up came quickly, and before we knew it, we were on our horses (selected by the ranch manager).  Mollie was assigned a nice buckskin named Snowy River and I was instructed to follow behind her on a bay named Stomper.  We set off at around 0900, and, being at the back of the group, we were quickly bombarded by the large clouds of dust that the horses in front of us were kicking up.  We got to ride through an actual river and we later got a great picture of smiling Mollie from that moment.  The beginning of the ride was pretty easy, with the trail boss (“Talon”) telling us about the stunning mountains nearby (Court of the Patriarchs) and us getting acclimated to climbing up a gradual incline on our steeds.  We were mostly under tree cover and we got to see the shuttle bus road and the tunnel through the mountains on UT-9 (from VERY high up).  It was thus a little surprising and disconcerting when a crazy hiker (who was headed in the other direction) appeared on the trail at a curved section with no visibility to the rest of the riders.  The horses in front of us had apparently just let him pass and kept going, but a mule ridden by a man two riders in front of Mollie got spooked.  The mule actually edged off the trail (which was very close to a large drop-off) and then decided to stop altogether.  It took a LOT of coaxing to get him going again.  I tried to call ahead to the trail boss but he didn’t hear me.  As a result of the delay, we were forced to make our horses run in order to catch up with the rest of the group.  Shortly after this, the whole group stopped so the horses could have a breather and the guide could adjust our stirrups.  I tried to explain to the trail  boss what had happened earlier (the mule's rider was from Germany and he wasn't able to explain everything entirely and place the blame where it belonged, with the hiker).  While we were waiting to get started again, the second trail guide, Savannah, showed up with another group of riders (they had been late).  She was able to help us keep our horses and mules in line, and we rode for another hour or so without any problems.  We reached a corral where we could put the horses while we took a break for some water and a bathroom.  Mollie and I made small talk with Talon, about “Unbranded”, a documentary we’d watched about four friends who rode mustangs from Mexico to Canada.  Talon thought they were reckless, and even pointed out some mistakes they made.  Mollie enjoyed having a chance to talk to and pet some of the horses in the corral, (most of whom were more than happy to receive some scratches).  After our break, we headed back toward the main corral via a different route.  We got to run the horses once again and spent more time in the sun (away from the trees).  Talon and Savannah talked more about the park and some of the pioneers who’d traveled through it over the years.  The ride down from the high point to the river actually seemed to go much more quickly (more running?).  When we finished (after three whole hours), it was much hotter (90s); Mollie was sad to have to leave but she remarked that this was the longest trail ride either of us had ever been on and “our butts are suffering”.  I saw the photo of Mollie and bought it from the nice vendor lady.  We also thanked the lady working in the reservation office for helping us get into the park with the pass.  Mollie was on Cloud Nine, she’d had so much fun.  As we were getting ready to go, I ended up striking up a conversation with the two German tourists (they had been the riders directly in front of Mollie).  They were visiting the US for their honeymoon and they asked me to give them ideas about places they should visit.  We also talked about places I’d been in Germany (some of which, they didn’t know about).  Since we were told we could leave our car in the parking lot as long as we wanted, we walked across the street to the Zion Lodge.  Much of it was closed (for cleaning or an event) but we found a place called the Castledome Café, where we got lunch (sandwiches) at 1230.  After our vacation in the middle of nowhere, the crowds of people were kind of nightmarish.  I remarked to Mollie that all of the crying children (tired, hot hungry) resembled Disneyworld.  She replied that we should quickly finish gobbling down our “over-priced sandwiches” and get out of that part of the park.  We drove back down the hill to the Visitor Center where we’d started our morning.  Mollie went to get her NPS passport stamp and some souvenirs.  By about 1400, we continued out of the park to the west on UT-9.  I told Mollie that I wanted to see the other (“stand alone”) section of Zion and she obliged me.  We had to drive through what Mollie called the “Jackson Hole-esque town” of Springdale.  Parking cost a fortune, there was tons of traffic and everything generally looked “Bougie” (Mollie slang for “aspiring to be a higher class than it is”).  After changing to UT-17, we reached I-15 and drove north.  It didn’t take us long to reach the satellite unit, Kolob Canyon.  We were pleased to find that it was much less crowded (we probably only saw about 20 cars on the whole road).  We stopped briefly at the Visitor Center and then drove up the road (lots of re-paving work was going on).  This was the part of Zion that I’d visited as a kid in the 1970s and 1980s.  Mollie was glad to take more pictures of the amazing views of the area.  The road was only five miles long and this meant that we were back in the parking lot of the area's Visitor Center very quickly (about 1545).  As Mollie was filling up her water bottle at the pump (water straight out of the ground), she met a hippie-looking guy who was walking over to fill up his 10 liter jug.  She didn't really pay him any mind and came back to the car and commented about him.  It was only at that moment that I realized that his van had Delaware plates.  Mollie got really excited because this was a state we’d never seen in more than three years of playing the “State License Place Game”.  I struck up a conversation with the driver and we told him that we’d actually found all 50 states (for the first time ever) because of his car.  Mollie actually jumped around in the parking lot and let our some whoops.  Both of us were riding a high at that point, and decided to drive south on I-15 to St. George to find a hotel.  On the way, we discussed Mollie's trip to Mississippi, travel during the coming year and driver’s license test/practice.  We checked into the Day’s Inn at 1620; and we rested in our room for a little while.  At 1805, we drove a short distance to eat dinner (steak-burgers) at Freddy’s Frozen Custard (one of our favorite places to visit, although we didn’t get any custard this time).  We returned to our room to rest some more. Mollie commented that she was feeling very exhausted after all of our traveling and adventuring over the last few weeks and I had to agree.  She wrote a very enthusiastic Facebook/Blog post (some of the text is in this narrative) and wrote some more postcards (after I convinced her that it would make her relatives and friends happy).  We went to bed at about 2230.