Only did a half-mile walk in this morning - I got a late start and needed to be back in time to pick up Patti for the movie.  We went to see Argo - and thoroughly enjoyed it.  No surprise that it got a 5-star rating; put it on your 'to see' list.

The real surprise was how many funny lines there were (eliciting audience laughter) considering the serious nature of the movie, and how tense it was at times. 

Now for the pictures from Zion.  On our drive to Springdale we drove through some of the park.  The 1.1 mile tunnel through the mountain was quite an engineering feat, especially when you consider when it was built. This shot was taken through the windshield (I love my camera) as we approached it.

I actually got a couple of shots as we were going through (no stopping allowed) passing the windows carved out of the mountain.

And the light at the end of the tunnel, with its spectacular view:

Shortly before we got to the tunnel we had encountered a traffic jam - but the good kind.  Some mountain sheep were on the side of the road and on the hill, and (of course) everyone stopped for a picture.  I didn't get very good pix that afternoon (they were on the other side of the road) but the next day we came across another group in a spot where there was room for one car to pull over, so we grabbed it.  Here are some of those pix:

Here is just some of the spectacular scenery we passed that afternoon after leaving the tunnel and driving into Springdale.

I did manage to catch the second half of the presidential debate that night, and it was made even more palatable by the ice cream Tom went out and got for us.

The next morning we boarded the shuttlebus to do the rest of Zion.  (Private cars are not allowed in much of the park.)  With interest we watched a trio of rock climbers get off at Big Bend with lots of gear. We continued on and then stopped at the museum stop - viewed many very interesting exhibits - then reboarded the shuttle and rode it to last the stop. At that point we took a delightful hike on the path alongside Virgin River. 

Along the way we saw lot of squirrels.  They seemed very cooperative, virtually posing (but probably just hoping that someone would risk the $100 fine and feed them.)  They certainly are not afraid of people - one even scampered over my shoe.

  

It looked like this one found a piece of apple.

The folks by the river hadn't yet noticed this squirrel, but he certainly noticed them - and was quite interested in what they were having for lunch, and hoping they'd share!

At the end of the path (maybe a mile?) we watched hikers cross the river and head into The Narrows for a more serious hike. (tilt your head left)

It sure was a pretty walk along the river (again, tyhl)

but by the time we got back to the shuttle I was quite ready to sit and rest.  

We caught the shuttle heading back down canyon, getting off at various stops for photo ops. At Big Bend, we were able to spot climbers up on face of huge cliff - pretty extreme climbing to say the least!  We let several shuttlebuses pass us by while we watched their progress.  This wall in this picture could be 1000 feet high.  Can you spot these climbers, heading up?

Here I've zoomed in on them.  (tyhl)

Still can't see them?  Look inside the red box:

There were also climbers on a different part of the wall, heading down. (tyhl)

They're easier to see once I zoomed in.

We also spotted some hikers along the Angels Landing trail, on top of this cliff.  It's quite a dramatic hike, and NOT for the faint of heart, with huge drop-offs on both sides of the trail.

The park ranger with whom we chatted on the shuttlebus told us she only did that hike once - and never again... way too scary!  I've seen photos of the trail, and I believe her!

I felt much better after my short rest, and we continued on down canyon.  

Here's a  shot through the window of the bus:

 Some of the most impressive views occured at the Court of the Patriarchs (I remember them from my last trip there.) 

But by then I was pretty tired out and only snapped a few after the short walk up the path to the viewpoint.

Once we got back to Springdale it was way past lunch time, and we were pretty hungry.  We stopped in at a place Tom and Lisa had discovered on their trip the year before.  Lunch was delicious, but I did have to cut the 'innerds' of my sandwich (turkey, avocado and cheese) into bite sized pieces to eat with a fork. Almost a week after my fall I was chewing okay but still couldn't bite anything. Least little bit of pressure on my front teeth was uncomfortable at best. And of course I wanted to give that tooth every possible chance to reroot itself!

By late afternoon we were on our way out of the park. I kept thinking I'd taken all the pix I was going to - but the scenery was just too beautiful!

We were backtracking toward Kanab for the night so we got to enjoy the tunnel again.  Did you notice it in the previous pic?

We're getting closer.

We stopped for the night earlier than we might have, partly because we wanted to do a museum the following day in nearby Fredonia, and partly because there weren't many places to stop between Kanab and Flagstaff, in which case I knew Tom would say "we might as well continue home", which I did NOT want to do!  We had read about the artifact museum when it was glowingly touted in a southern Utah tourist newspaper.  They really talked it up, but we wondered why Tom had never seen it (he'd never even heard about it) if it housed such a fantastic collection.  

The mystery was solved the next day during our visit; turns out it had only opened in March of 2012.

 It truly was an impressive collection.  Here's just one wall.  

Dixon gave us a wonderful tour of the nonprofit venture, basically housing his lifelong collection and that of a friend of his (since deceased.) Tom was quite familiar with the other man's name and knew of his collection. The stories behind the discovery of many of the artifacts were quite interesting.  

It came as no surprise that Tom and Dixon had a ball swapping stories of their experiences.  

The real surprise was that we got out of there before closing. <G>  

When Tom and I talked about the highlight of our week, it turned out that the museum was #1 on his list.  (Of course he had just done the North Rim, Antelope Canyon, Bryce, and Zion with Lisa in the summer of 2011.)  Mine?  Antelope Canyon!