Zion National Park - Trip to Lava Point

On our third day at Zion we decided to do a little more exploring on our own so we drove out of the park to the town of Virgin and turned onto Kolob Terrace Road. We weren’t sure what we would find which made it all the more exciting.  The climbed pretty high and mostly followed the North Creek.

From high up we could see beautiful ranches below.  I started reading Louis L'Amour novels during my summer trip and this ranch reminds me of so many that he wrote about. It would make a great hideout or now days a hide away.

It felt like we could see forever.

As we ascended we begin to leave the desert behind us.

We stopped for lunch and I did a little bit of birding and found a Grace's Warbler.

It was so cold and actually started raining but we pressed on through beautiful aspens.

And eventually to a high mountain top meadow where we played “Don’t Fence Me In” on the cd player while Catherine took videos.

As we turned onto Lava Point Road the fog was rolling in and I took this photo overlooking a wet meadow. I could well imagine spending the rest of the spring birdwatching and staying in the cabin to the right.

We finally reached our goal of Lava Point.  But by then we were freezing and snow was starting.  The whole trip was one of rapid changes in habitat and weather.