Zion National Park Hike - Orderville/Narrows

I love these 5-day Harvest Holidays off of school. Autumn is such a beautiful time to be out in "nature." We camped out in Watchman Campground by the Zion Nat'l Park Visitors Center with Joe, Maureen, Cole & Rebekah in one camp site and Sam, Mary, Carson, Walker, Mark, Chase & Sean in another campsite. Judd and Erica stayed in Springdale in a motel (wimps). After a great pizza/pasta dinner in Springdale Thursday night, we all went to bed fairly early for a full day of hiking on Friday. I was surprised that I slept so well this night, other than the fact my sleeping bag kept sliding off my pad.

This campground is a little crowded if you are used to camping in the mountains with not many people around. Here we were within breathing distance of our neighbors and it took some getting used to. I nearly punched out the guy next to us - he came in really late and then he and his wife proceeded to laugh and talk (yell) as they got everything set up. Then he walked nearly over to our tent and made a cell phone call to his mother telling her all about how they just got in and why they were late and why they didn't get their permit, and on and on and on. I wanted to open up our tent flap and say "excuse me - some of us are trying to sleep." But I didn't -I behaved very respectably.

Friday morning I dropped off Joe, Cole, Rebekah, Carson, Walker, Chase, Sean, Mark, & Sam at their hike start - about an hour drive from camp. Judd & Erica met me and Maureen at camp and the four of us decided to hike up to Emerald Pools. I've made this hike at least 10 times but it is always beautiful-and the day was warm and beautiful. I felt bad that Sam had the camera on his hike and I couldn't take any photos of my day, but that is okay.

We all met up in the evening and went to the famous Bumbleberry Inn for dinner. We had never been there and decided to give it a try. Never again will I go there. Not one of was happy with our dinners. Service was extremely slow and the food was lousy. We went back to camp and made a big fire and sat up and talked.

We decided we need to come every year and reserve four sites together so it is like one big party - and have fun!!!