A few more shots of our trip to Zions

This one's for Marcia.

If you drive up Kolob canyon (you can still take cars up there), there is a really cool tunnel you drive through. It is really long. Took us 3 minutes and 45 seconds to get through the entire thing. And it goes right through the side of the mountain.

Here we are entering the tunnel.

This is what the tunnel entrance looks like from up above.

As you drive through the tunnel there are several "windows" so you can look out over the valley. There are some great views, but you're not allowed to stop in the tunnel so you have to look quick!

Down the canyon a little, you get a glimpse of that window that we were looking out. This tunnel seriously goes right through the side of a huge sheer cliff. Cool. You have to understand my family really gets entertained by tunnels. That was one of the funnest things of our trip last year-all the tunnels on the west coast.

This is canyon rim overlook. We hiked up 1/2 mile to overlook Kolob canyon. Watch Mr. No Fear at the end as he climbs right up to the edge of a drop off.

Here we are having a picnic at the Grotto.

A quick shot of the lower emerald pools. The best place to cool off in the middle of a long hot hike.

And now we are home and back to work for the last gruelling week of school! : )

The Touch of the Master's Hand

Way too many awesome pictures today. I narrowed it down to 20 that I really wanted to post, so I made some collages in order to fit them all in. Click on them so you can see them bigger and hopefully get an idea of the beauty that surrounded us today.

We went on a "brutal" hike today. We will all feel it tomorrow I'm sure. But it was well worth it. The cliffs up here just leak water all over. You can stand under the water and get a cool shower, which feels great after hiking in the heat. But the waterfalls that are created are incredible.

Towards the top of our hike we were surrounded by sheer cliffs as high as we could see.

This is the end of our hike - Upper Emerald Pool. It was so incredible up there.

More water pictures. Some are the Virgin River. Some are the Lower and Middle Emerald Pools.

Our view as the sun went behind the cliffs. Thank goodness for the shade of those cliffs!

More hanging gardens. It's hard to get a good picture. On the right there is a waterfall coming right out of the rocks, but because of the lighting you can't see it very well.

The canyons are just beautiful. So green considering we are in the heart of the desert. Some places we hiked today reminded us of when we were in Oregon.

We found this quote in a museum we went into:

To view the wonders of creation

Is to look into the heart of God.

Michael Fatali

Well said.