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Friday 5th August 2005 - Zion National Park

This was a pretty good day. After breakfast, we decided to drive up to the north east corner of the park, an area known as Kolob Canyons. This is a greener and more secluded area of the park but which still has the trademark big sandstone walls of the main part. On the way there, we passed through an area of desert and were surprised to hear what sounded like rain hitting the windscreen. This turned out on closer inspection to be bugs of some sort splatting against it! We'd driven through what must have been a cloud of them and the windscreen was quickly covered in dead bugs and bug blood and slime!

We'd decided to walk a 6 mile trail called the Taylor Creek Trail. Not surprisingly, the trail followed the path of Taylor Creek, a small river, which given the time of year, was not deep or fast flowing anywhere. This was fortunate as we had to cross it at least a dozen times en route, which was a lot of fun. The trail took us along the creek and into a canyon between very big walls. The end of the trail was at Double Arch Alcove, 2 sandstone arches "cut" deep into the rock, one above the other. Happily the trail was quiet as well and we only encountered a small number of other hikers.

Everyone did really well on this trail, especially given it was the longest we'd attempted. Again, 6 miles might not sound much but with a steady climb and rough terrain, it's challenging enough. In total we were out for three and three-quarter hours, which was in line with the estimates given in our guide book of three to four hours for the trail. We'd stopped for about twenty minutes for lunch as well.

As always there was lots of wildlife to see, in particular copious numbers of lizards, each of which was given a personal name by Bekky, and butterflies of various types. In addition, we saw hundreds of *leaches* attached to rocks at various places in the creek! Unfortunately the photos of the leaches didn't come out due to the reflection from the surface of the water.

After the trail we drove back to the camp site, all pretty tired. We rested for a bit and then went into Springdale to get some laundry done.

Laundry sorted out, we went back to camp and had our evening meal.

The day ended with us going to see the Fantastic 4 movie at the Springdale cinema! The movie was lots of fun, Jack in particular enjoying it. The only problem was that now both Jack *and* Martin wanted to be the Human Torch. This was quickly resolved by the rest of the family voting Martin The Thing instead!

Click on the photos for full size versions

This really gives you no idea as to the massive volume of insect life we slaughtered on the way to Kolob Canyons!

Heading off down the Taylor Creek Trail

"My evil Dad is making me walk miles again! I know, I'll give him a hard stare...". Bekky enjoying the outdoor life :)

We criss-crossed across the creek repeatedly which made it a fun walk

As with everywhere we'd been, the flora was as interesting as anything else

The trali took us towards and then into a relatively narrow canyon bounded by high sandstone walls.

Martin acted as packhorse as usual!

The map wasn't strictly necessary but it was nice to have some idea of how far away from the end of the trail we were

Lots of interesting wildlife to see

Bekky's found something. Lizard? Butterfly? Dragonfly?

In the canyon....

The wobbly log!

Jack still going strong

The trail ended at a huge "double arch". Rather tricky to photograph but hopefully some idea of what they were like comes across....

The trees should give some idea of scale

Inside the lower arch

Heading back up the trail the way we came....

Some stretches of the trail were completely sheltered, with no discernible air movement. We frequently saw large and beautiful butterflies in these areas

An old pioneer's cabin

Prettiful flower

Almost at the end of the trail and back at the car

Back at the campground,