Wednesday was a long day. The Barracks Trail leaves from Hurricane, UT and winds it way north to the eastern entrance to Zion National Park. The return was on the highway through the park to Hurricane and on to St George. The trail itself is forty-four miles long, but totals 145 miles when the highway segments are considered.
We visited more dinosaur tracks. The tracks the other day were direct imprints in the sandstone. Today’s prints are cast, meaning the original imprint was filled with material that calcified and are now preserved in relief.
It is a very scenic trail, but not without its challenges since there is a good bit of sand. Here one of our group needed to be strapped back on the trail from the edge of a substantial drop off.
We had lunch in a stream bed, but it was too cold to set up chairs. We all ate in our respective jeeps before continuing on. From this point on to Zion National Park we managed twenty-four water crossings of various depths. The lead Jeep was breaking the ice on the river. As we crossed we could see ice in some places that was nearly an inch thick. I think this was the day that I read Florida was experiencing a heat index of 100 degrees.
The drive through Zion came at the perfect time of day to light the canyon.
This was the night of the wine tasting contest. Six wines were served. Each was presented in a black glass to hide its color. We were to guess its color, varietal, and year. We guessed blindly for the most part, but still came away with nice hand made wood cutting/serving boards as prizes.
