We left St. George at noon and traveled northeast to Springdale, on the doorstep of Zion National Park. Three years ago, we had entered Zion through the infamous Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel, a tunnel hewn from rock through the side of a mountain. Thankfully, we did not have to traverse this tunnel, as we entered the town of Springdale and the Zion Canyon from the other direction.

The sheer red cliffs of Zion are as beautiful as I remember, and we got to the hotel at 1:00. Too early to check in, we loaded up the backpack with waters, sunscreen ourselves, and walked into the park.

The temperature hovered near 100º. With tomorrow a full day to hike the famous Angel's Landing trail—which affords stunning views of the entire canyon—we felt as if we should hike somewhere as a warm-up. But the temperature meant that we needed to go on a reasonably shady one.

We hopped onto the shuttle bus system and got off once we were well within the park. We walked along a trail which paralleled the road and then crossed the road. This area, known as the Grotto, is the jumping-off point for many hikes, including Angel's Landing. But we went in the other direction, going up the trail along the rock face. To our left, we could see the entire canyon, in its epic monoliths of red and white, while the Virgin River's clear water slowly trickled along its course on the valley floor.

The winding, backtracking trail went into a well-forested side canyon with striations of black and red rock cut straight up along the canyon wall. These trails led to the Emerald Pools, trickling oases set on flat areas of rock. Two were shallow, with the upper pool the only one too deep to make out the bottom. This one was the most picturesque of all the pools, with the curving canyon wall sticking straight up behind it, loose rocks all around three sides, and a small beach full of the softest sand. Most of the other groups on the trails spent a lot of time here, and while we too enjoyed its secluded beauty (and friendly squirrels), we got out while the thin trail was clear from people traveling towards the pool.

We backtracked a little bit, exiting the cool shade of the mini-canyon and then going back through a trail cut through a large rock. This led us underneath a huge rock overhang. Two waterfalls rushed over this overhang and we were spritzed by one and rained on by the other, which was a refreshing experience.

The hike back to the canyon floor was paved and downhill, with the only stop for a deer near the trail, eating away on her lunch of leaves and paying no attention to the humanity slightly farther down the hill.

We packed into two shuttle buses where the concept of personal space simply did not exist and then got out in the downtown area to eat at a Mexican restaurant. The sides were the best things; the fajitas and chimichanga simply didn't stack up. But we were looking for lemonade and sustenance, and those were two things which we received in abundance.

We walked back to the hotel and picked up an ornament (we can't remember if we have one or not from our first trip here, but in either case we don't have the Angel's Landing ornament we purchased). The cashier had connections all over North Carolina and even knew where Kernersville was. She hadn't hiked too many of the Zion trails due to her fear of heights, so we encouraged her to visit North Carolina for the less steep terrain.

We also went a little further down the road to stock up on water and sunscreen for tomorrow, then went further down to our hotel, officially checked in, and crashed.

Tomorrow: our third extreme early-morning wake-up, this time to beat the heat up Angel's Landing.