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[quote=Anonymous]Day 5, Part 1: Wrapping up Zion
Packed up rooms, and got a little bit of a later start this day (8:30am) because we had to get out of rooms and load up cars. 
Took shuttle to Angel’s landing. Re: Angel’s landing - my advice is if you’re interested but not sure if you can do the whole thing - just do as much as you feel like. The very beginning is totally easy and has very nice views IMO. 
My mom is having foot pain and didn’t do much hiking at all. She got off at most shuttle stops with us and would walk around a bit but then wait for us if we were doing a hike. She says she still feels like she saw a lot this way and that it was beautiful scenery to rest with. Anyway, she and my 7 year old did a very little bit at the beginning of the Angel’s landing trail and then hung out to wait for us. I started the trail with my dad, my sister, my husband, my 9 y/o, and I was wearing the 4 year old.  DH asked if I wanted him to carry her but I carried her bc I knew he wanted to do the whole thing and I was just going to stay as far as the 9 y/o wanted. I wouldn’t say the part that I did was hard exactly but it really started to be a LOT of uphill hiking.  I would say my 9 y/o and I made it a little less than 1 mile up the trail before turning around. The rest of the group continued up. (They think if they knew they weren’t going to do the chain part they would have encouraged my 9 y/o to stay with them the whole time).

I went back down with my 9 y/o and 4 y/o. At the very beginning of the trail we had seen three river access points. We decided to get my mom and 7 y/o and to one of the river access points, and wait for the rest of the group.  The kids had a blast playing there for an hour or so.  Honestly that is probably one of their favorite parts of the Zion trip. The rest of the group made it to the chain part of the trail but spoke with other hikers and learned it would have been another two hours to wait and do the last part with the lines for the chains, so they went to a western rim lookout which they thought also had a good view and no wait. They were not too disappointed that they didn’t do the whole thing. 
Then we hiked the grotto trail to the Lodge then took shuttle back to entrance to get on the road.  We were sad to leave!

Other Zion things I don’t think I mentioned yet:
Wildlife: my kids liked spotting wildlife. I think we saw: a frog, rock squirrels, mule deer with big ears, lots of turkeys, and big beetles.

Restaurants - I mentioned already where we went.  I had also considered trying spotted dog (and bit & spur as mentioned) but just didn’t have time to get to them all!

I also can’t remember if I cleared this up already - but originally I had booked 2 nights in Vegas, 2 nights at Cable mountain, and 2 nights at Bryce Lodge. Then about a month before we left, the adults in my group decided they wanted to try 1 night in Vegas and 3 nights at Zion. At first I couldn’t add a third night at cable mountain for all 3 rooms so I had booked us all one night at another Springdale hotel, but I kept calling Cable Mountain and eventually I was able to get 3 nights for all 3 rooms at cable mountain!  I was so happy!

Since we went to Walmart we ate all breakfasts in our room. Re: most lunches, I had heard the lodge could get crowded so we might want to bring lunch in with us (including buying a hiker’s wrap in a Springdale restaurant on the way in).  Since I had heard that, I brought with us a lunch cooler and ice packs from home.  We didn’t end up buying wraps in town - I ended up making lunches (nothing fancy - lunchables, PB&J) with the groceries we had and bringing that with us and we thought that worked well.

Overall I think we had a good amount of time in Zion. We couldn’t do everything but I think we still did a lot and didn’t feel rushed. [/quote]

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