We woke to some mule deer visitors at our campsite. Because of the heat we wanted to get up and around earliest to beat the heat (and the crazy crowds on the shuttles, I couldn't believe how busy this national park was) If we had to do it all over again for one we would not plan a visit to a dessert valley in June, HA! Ooops!)
Shuttle view of peaks
Today's goal was to see the emerald pools.
First photo is a better depiction of mood, lol.
So much wildlife along the way.
We weren't sure WHAT these emerald pools would look like... were they green, was it a big pool of water? There were upper pools, lower pools middle pools... also nothing was labeled.
We came to what we thought was the middle pools because we saw a sign for the upper pools. The kids were melting down... but we didn't hike all this way to NOT see the upper pools. So Kyle, Isaac, and I went up the vertical trail to the upper pools while the other three waited in the shade.
Quick pic of upper pools, then I headed back to the other three while Kyle and Isaac stayed for just a little bit to enjoy.
What we thought was the middle pools wasn't but then we came upon them, all of use. The kids had fun putting their hands in the cold water and finding tadpoles. The shade felt nice too, it was starting to heat up mid-day.
I came across this photo while blogging thought I'd share here, Oakley was having the time of his life playing at the boarding place, lol.
Back to Utah:
We finally made it to our stop to find the shuttle and head back out of the valley.
We did well. Back to the RV to rest our feet and fix lunch before setting out on another small hike. We also took a dip in the river to cool off. Crazy how the river was in the 50s and the camp was over 100! We wanted to go to the nature center for the kids to get their Jr. Ranger badges. Instead of taking the shuttle we decided to walk, it didn't look that far away... well had there not been lots of construction on the trail, oops.
In our defense the shuttle doesn't actually stop at the natural center so we had to walk one way or the other. So to leave we headed to the closest shuttle spot which was also the info center.
Emma and I stepped outside to see the views, there were these little ground hog type creatures scurrying about, I couldn't quite get a photo of them though.
We took the shuttle back to the main spot and made it to our campsite for the evening. I think we probably went back over by the river where it was much cooler. The mule deers have it figured out and stay pretty close to camp. I think we watched a movie - we bought a cheap DVD player on the first night because we had brought movies thinking the RV would have one but it didn't.
