Zion National Park's Emerald Pools Walk

During the night we experienced a thunder and lightning storm.  It occurred around 3 am, so I wasn't awake enough to appreciate it.  The storm passed but left rain.  It was still raining this morning, so we decided to do some errands in the town of Hurricane, Utah, which is about 15 miles from the RV park. 

When we got back to the motorhome, the rain had stopped.  We decided to go into Zion National Park again and do the Lower Emerald Pool walk.  It's a paved trail but had quite a bit of mud on it from the storm.  The walk gains an elevation of 160 feet which we handled pretty well.  The walk is only 1.2 miles roundtrip, but it took us over an hour.  We rode the park shuttle to Zion Lodge where the Emerald Pools walks begin.  There is a lower, a middle, and an upper trail to the pools.  The lower pool is at an elevation of 4500 feet. 

Zion Lodge

The Virgin River

The bridge crossing the Virgin River

The beginning of the path to Lower Emerald Pool.  Note how green everything is after the rainfall.

Our first view of Emerald Pool which was muddy, not emerald-colored.

The waterfall which creates Emerald Pool.  Now that's a sight to see!

The view from behind the waterfall.  Yes, you WILL get wet!