Impressions

As you may see we were using our ski sticks for support in the water as well as gaining more speed on the even path.

Squirrels are spread out all over that path. They are not afraid of people and some are pretty fat. Which leads to a thought that maybe not all visitors sustain from feeding them which is forbidden…

Here is the beginning of the trail in the water. Yes, very crowded even on a regular weekday. I guess main reasons being school holidays and kids like water. But nevertheless there was enough space for everyone. No accidents, peaceful strolling up and down the river, with some kids swimming in deeper places. We tried to find shallow passages so that our butts don’t get wet, though the water wasn’t cold at all.

This is a very popular place for taking pictures – the stream rolling down the slope is very cute and refreshing. Sometimes you can even see the canyoneering people landing down the stream in zigzags while attached to ropes. This is also the place where the barefooted hikers finish their hike into the canyon.

But on that particular day the crowds proceeded further. And it was beautiful, but not as beautiful as getting far more deeper into the narrows of the canyon as you will see.

As seen in the pictures the sun was especially bright, which is usual here, but because it was July, not September, there was practically very little shade, it was beating us or caressing us (depending on perception), and a hot wind was blowing all through the canyon. So at that point I gave up, as never before, my body refused to walk further…way too hot even in the water. Thanks God my husband proceeded and he took those beautiful pictures of the narrows:

Isn’t it like in a fairy tale? And yes, there are no crowds any more, only the strongest can get a glimpse of the best views -fair like in fairy tales…

The view on the way back:

My sole advice for travelers in summer – try to start you day as early as you can. There is some though very little morning coolness, freshness. Try to capture and use it.

The end.

This was on one of the first days of May. The spring here was wonderful, the main factor being the temperature- it was not too hot. Well, except some 4 days in the middle of May which caused some people heat rashes. But the beginning of May was fantastic and a group of locals as well as some visitors collected for a trip on the upper part of Zion NP. We parked the cars on the right hand side of the road approximately half way from the tunnel to the East entrance and proceeded down to the dry wash. And then up and towards a pass in between two red typical Zion peaks. Here is how it all looked:

Lines of Zion…

Towards the pass…

Our group on the pass:

A small stream on the way down to the other side of the pass towards the Big Hole:

Still not the Big Hole, but a small one…

At last – here is she!

On top of the Hole we had our lunch:

The leaders of the group – Adrian and Delores. Adrian’s way of getting his water during the trip…

Spring in Rockville is very beautiful. Especially this one, because we didn’t get the late frosts as usual which kill the tree blossoms. But i was a little cooler than usual, so everything started blooming later that usual. Anyway – from March to May it is a very good time to come the Zion NP and hike a lot! The temperatures almost never get to hot, they are in a comfortable range for hiking or working outside. And a spring breeze is cooling you constantly. However, there can be some rather windy parts of days. Also – there may even happen to snow once, as it was two years ago: March 15 th morning looked like this:

This year it snowed on March 16th, but it wasn’t as impressive. But have in mind – those are the only one or second times during winter season that we see snow!

So if you are more into blooms and flowers – come no earlier than the end of March. The same pear tree you just saw under snow looks like this:

And we have sunsets like that:

Closer to the summer those sunsets get less red and impressive, because the sun sets in a different location in regards to the canyon direction. But we still have beautiful views around while evenings set down:

WE have a fairy tale in Lithuania by Biliunas about “Cursed monks” who were punished and turned into stone figures because while going up and reaching for the torch of happines on the top of a mountain – they couldn’t sustain from doubts, fear and curiosity and looked back… The author definitely never visited this area, but I have never seen a mountain which would illustrate the tale better:

And here are some blooms:

Those are peach trees blooming:

The irises come out later, only by the end of May:

And please, don’t miss our sign almost all buried in flowers…

Come and see for yourselves…

The end.

Here in Rockville and Springdale we are blessed – we have Yoga ant Tai-Ji classes! It is hard for us to choose where to go or to find time for both. Ann Rutz teaches Anusara Yoga and David Rutz teaches Tai-ji. They are both wonderful teachers, what a family!

This time I will talk about Tai-ji which we usually have on David’s terrace, and that is how we usually see him :

And this is us, his most devoted students: Susan, Genevieve and Nida:

It all started several years ago – David got engaged in his Master’s Chungliang Al Huang classes in Oregon and even invited him to our canyon one of the beautiful autumns maybe a couple of years ago.

Here Chungliang is in the middle of the circle teaching us to relax in our movements, to dance in his class and through life.

He also showed us how graceful he is while doing Chinese calligraphy:

At the end of the classes as usual we were taking pictures with him:

But then he left and David decided to continue teaching us the Five Elements and Four Circles of Life. So we are enjoying every minute of it:

Especially when the weather is nice enough (which is almost always we have it on the terrace with the magnificent views of Zion:

That is why when we come to class we at first all exclaim what a wonderful weather we have here, how beautiful the mountains look and how grateful we are for that:

Then we do the Five Elements and Four Circles of Life created or choreographed by Chungliang, trying to be as graceful as possible and also trying to feel the energy floating around and through us:

And at some point we always discuss things like whether there is a bad and good energy or just the energy we need and use and the energy we don’t utilize (Susan’s brilliant thought). We discuss Chinese symbols, some philosophy and then David tells us something in pure Chinese language, which to him sounds musical and to me – not so much . He is a very good student of everything Chinese! There are quite a few Chinese paintings in their house, so when the weather is not the best -we do Tai-Ji in the house and admire the art:

There is also another Buddha outside who watches us while we dance and gives us a hint to be as Present as possible:

We usually end the class with the healing movements of Spring Forest Chigong and then usually Ann, our Yoga teacher, comes back from walking their dog Lao-Tzu and we have a nice chat with her:

And then David sees us off, till next Saturday:

Thank you, David!

Here is how our Zion National Park looked this winter. It is usually like that every winter, except that this winter we had a lot of snow. While I am writing this it is already 28th of March and I can still see snow powder on the slopes of Mountain. But the pictures were taken not now, but at different times in December and February. Here is the entrance to the park and the main scenic drive:

We were so happy to catch that beam of sun on the edge of the mountain:

Virgin River by the Temple of Sinawawa:

There were some bright colored ducks swimming in the river:

As every temple the Temple of Sinawawa it has an altar and a pulpit:

There was much more snow in February and those are a couple of views on the top part of the park – the Canyon Overlook trail: