As much as I wanted to stay out of Zion Canyon during the weekends, I decided that the thick clouds made it wise to stay out of the east side washes today. Last night only brought .04", but it looked as though that total was going to rise today.

Since my knees have been doing okay the past few days I decided that I would hike the West Rim trail. My plan was to continue past Scout Lookout. I would keep an eye on the time and decide how far to go. As I started ascending the trail it soon became apparent that my knees weren't in agreement with my plan. I took as many rest breaks as I needed and continued to hike at a glacial pace. By this time my goal had changed to just making it up to Refrigerator Canyon.

Oh did I mention that it's the weekend? Scores of people blew past me. I would say that they left me in their dust, but unlike some days the wind wasn't blowing sand in my face. Or if that was sand, it was the type that's awful light, white, and melts. No, I don't think that's possible either. It must have been snow.

I finally made it to Refrigerator Canyon, which was quite a relief because the trail pretty much levels off in that area. As I had expected there were lots of colorful maples present. I reached the bottom of Walter's Wiggles (a series of short, very steep switchbacks) and paused to consider if I should venture further. I still had a lot of daylight hours left. Maybe I could take it slow. The possibility that taxing my knees any more might make it impossible for me to hike in the coming days was a big factor in my turning around at that point. I'm pretty sure that the trail isn't going away any time soon, so I can always try again in some future year. Well I suppose that rockslides are a possibility, so it might actually be closed at some point, although that doesn't seem like a high probability.

I finished up the day shooting at the Temple of Sinewava and walking the nice, level Riverside Walk trail. My knees felt okay walking on level ground.

Today's picture is something that feels more like home than the previous photos in this gallery. By home I mean Oregon, not the place where I actually live. It's nice to be shooting water again.