February 29
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We were up fairly early and back in the park after a quick breakfast at the Pioneer (Bumbleberry’s was closed on Sundays).
I had two hikes planned for this day. Our morning hike involved the Emerald Pools. There are several trails leading to this series of three pools, which weren’t as green as the name implies. We were too early in the year for the algae to be colorful, I guess.
We took the Middle Emerald Pool Trail up the side of the canyon to the middle pool, then on up to the upper pool which has a tall waterfall and still had snow at the base of the waterfall.
The photo on the left above was taken from behind the waterfall connecting Middle and Lower Emerald Pools. The photo on the right was taken from about the same location and shows the valley floor as it looks in early spring.
Then back down the Lower Emerald Pool Trail, making several stops along the way. Turned out that our best view of the tall waterfall was from the first trail, so we went back up it again for about half a mile to the spot I had seen, then returned the way we came.
Total trail length was about four miles. We had a quick lunch at the Lodge, then turned our attention to the afternoon hike.
For the afternoon hike, we returned to River Walk, this time with camera gear. We kept running into a Ranger-led walk along this trail, so picked up some information along the way, too.
This trail ends at the entrance to The Narrows, a trail that leads straight up the Virgin River - literally. Most of the trail for the Narrows is in the middle of the river and is closed in the winter months. And not highly recommended for the inexperienced the rest of the year!
The two photos above show Mystery Falls, which is near the parking lot for the entrance to The Narrows.
Dinner that evening was at the Spotted Dog Café at Flanigan’s Inn. Highly recommended. Excellent cuts of salmon. My only problem there was that the room had bad acoustics and was pretty noisy. Carl’s stomach had been bothering him all day - he thinks it was a bug he picked up along the way - but the salmon really helped and he was feeling much better by bedtime.