We got up a little early for being on vacation, but it wasn't because of an alarm clock. We just naturally woke up. Breakfast was ready at 8:30, and I have to say I really like B&B places. We had a crustless quiche, very similar to a quiche lorraine, but it had cauliflower in it as well. They also served potatoes, muffins, fruit, and OJ. Very filling breakfast, and it provided a lot of energy for the day.
The next thing we did was head into St. George (about an hour away), because I had forgotten the charger for my camera's battery. Once we had the charger, we went back to the B&B, got our gear, and headed into Zion again. This time we did a new trail called the Hidden Canyon trail. The first part is a little steep, but it didn't really bother me. I got a few good pictures of a waterfall on this part of the trail that is normally barely a trickle. Later on in the trail, it gets to a point where there are chains provided to hold onto. We saw a couple of people that didn't bother to use them, but I have to say, they are just crazy. The drop from that point is a sheer 2-3 hundred feet, followed by another thousand or so of very steep rocky hills. We made sure to be rather careful, but it wasn't really that scary. And the views were spectacular. At the end of the trail, you are in a very secluded area where the water has carved out a little pool and a couple of small waterfalls. Normally, these aren't running at all, but because of the heavy rainfall the week before, there was a pretty decent flow.
After descending back down to the base of the canyon, we decided to have a late lunch at the Zion Lodge. I don't think we will do that again, because the service was terrible and the food was mediocre. We should have been out of there in under 30 minutes, but instead it took almost a full hour. We barely made it out in time for our 3pm horseback riding appointment.
When we did get over to the corral, we had a couple of minutes while the horses were coming in from their previous trip. We were each assigned a horse based on which horses got along with the other horses. I was assigned to Freckles, and AM was assigned to Fuzzy. AM had never been horseback riding before, so we had decided to only do the 1 hour ride. She was still pretty sore at the end of it, but it was a lot of fun. Fuzzy really didn't want to go, and as AM put it, she "couldn't find the gas pedal." Freckles really wanted to eat, and while we were told to not let them, at one point he just didn't care how hard I pulled on the reigns, he made sure to get a mouthful of grass that he would chew on the way. It was actually rather funny. AM really liked the picture they took of her on Fuzzy, so we got a copy of that and she is going to put in on her cubical wall at work.
Once we got back from riding, we decided to do the Riverside Walk again. It is a really easy paved trail, but it does have some nice scenery and a look at The Narrows at the end. It was also good to stretch our legs after being in a saddle. The water level was a lot higher this time, and the river was almost at a "rapids" type level in some places. After this, the sun was getting ready to set, so we decided to do the Pa'rus trail. This is another paved walkway, but since we hadn't done it before, and AM's knees were still a little sore from the riding, we figured it would be a good idea. We saw a really pretty sunset that turned the face of one mountain bright red, and also some deer. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the appropriate lens onto the camera for the mountain shot in time, and by the time we saw the deer it was too dark for a decent picture.
When we got back to the B&B, I wasn't feeling to well, so we decided to try out the local pizza place for dinner (for some reason pizza always calms my stomach). I had a calzone and AM had some pasta. Both were pretty good. The place had an interesting decor. After dinner, we checked out the Fatali gallery. The photographs in that gallery are absolutely superb. He uses a large format (8x10) film camera and cibocrome prints. All of the development work is done by hand (color version of Ansel Adams), and the range of color he captures is very impressive. I would have bought a print to put on the wall, but the smallest prints were $450. While I think they are worth that much, I just can't spare that kind of money.