Tuesday we hiked the Emerald Pools loop and saw all three pools. We then
saw a bit more of the canyon, had lunch at a "picnic grotto" (wide place
with lots of trees and some picnic benches), were attacked (again) by
the silly yellow jackets/bees, hiked up to Weeping Rock (a short but steep
paved trail), tried to get a parking spot for the
Riverwalk trail at the end of the canyon, couldn't, and decided to hike
that the next morning before we left. After all, we weren't going to be
in a hurry since Bryce is only about 2 hours away. We then headed into
town and got showers (yea!) and lunch and pie (double yea!) from the
Bumbleberry Inn in Springdale. Then we just came back to camp and
read/relaxed until just before 7pm, at which time we headed back to
Springdale and saw their Cinemax movie Zion, Treasure of the Gods.
The pools have 2 access trails -- a steeper loop which goes to the
middle pool, after which there is a short but very steep spur to the
upper pool. This trail then descends to the lower pool, returning
to the trailhead via the second, shorter and flatter trail which only
sees the lower pool. While you can do the loop backwards, it's not
in the map book that way -- and this way some of the traffic is cut
down by separating those who want to see the other pools early on.
This trailhead is directly opposite the river from the Zion Lodge, so
you can see it would get lots of use.
The terrain was mostly reddish sandstone and dirt, with some whiter
colors mixed in at the higher pool. The pools really did used to be
the natural emerald color, but human use has killed off a lot of the
algae responsible for the color. Now, you're not allowed to go in the
pools. September is, of course, also a low-water season.
