Upper Emerald Pools Trail

One of the hiking guides said this was a “classic Zion hike” and I couldn’t agree more, especially at this time of year — it was just difficult enough to keep it interesting, but not too difficult, warm but not too warm, and there was a cove at the end of the hike with a waterfall and a sandbar for the kids to play on. (No swimming allowed, but you can dabble your toes.)

Halfway up the trail, while Mabel was chattering away about ladybugs and squirrels and Rose was busy writing “WATER” in the sand and Henry was looking around and Isaac was scouting, an elderly gentleman who was hiking with his wife said to us, “Your kids are making this hike enjoyable for us.” Talk about a shining parenthood moment (and a very nice man.) Then we took a wrong fork in the trail that led to a steep dusty scramble up a hillside before it rejoined the real trail, and we were chagrined when we discovered the couple had followed us in our erroneous route. (They were good sports about it, although it obviously hadn’t been an easy detour for them.)

Another shining parenting moment for me was when I saw Rose following Isaac and Mabel to the sand bar, and also saw that she would have to traverse some large, sharp rocks, so I followed her, and therefore was standing right next to her just as she fell — she would have landed headfirst on the rocks, but I reached out and caught her just in time.

Oh — one thing that was interesting was that the waterfall would move as you watched, as much as several feet to the left or right — we guessed it must correlate with how much sunshine was on the melting snow above. It was fun to watch it move back and forth.

And here are the pictures.

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