Kolob-Cougars and Spiders and Stairs-oh my!

We said: Flew into Salt Lake City Monday night and were off to Zion National Park this morning. It was a 4+ hour drive down I-15 on a very windy day. While we were driving you could see the dust blowing-it looked like smoke rising and there were a few times when you could see it across the road up ahead. We both thought it was a good thing Paul wasn't riding his bike in that wind. Got to the Kolob Canyon (which is the North end of Zion) about 4:30 and took the 5 mile drive up the canyon road. It was a beautiful drive-the red rocks and canyons were gorgeous-took some pictures and drove down to the Taylor Creek trail. The trailhead information said it was a 5 mile trip (back and forth) which should take 4 hours. It was 5:30 and we knew it would be getting dark by around 7:30 so we decided to hike in an hour and then head back. The trail followed the Taylor Creek, crossing back and forth across it (there wasn't much water flowing in it) and for the most part the path was like red beach sand. We will head to the main entrance of the park tomorrow for some more beautiful sites and hikes.

That's sand blowing in the field.

At the top of the Kolob Canyon road.

From the Canyon road.

One of the views from our hike.

Pretty isn't it?

On the trail.

The rock formations and patterns were beautiful.

More scenes from the trail.

Yes, they said there were tarantulas in the park-we saw one!

We cut it a little close-the sun was setting and it was getting dark as we were finishing the last of the hike-up 90 some steps-thank goodness it wasn't too dark.....they said there were cougars to watch out for too (and gave instructions on how to scare them off)!