Day 7: June 14th

Today completes our first week on the trip. We started the day with a discussion just a mile from Bryce Canyon. We had a discussion about Utah prarie dogs in front of a prarie dog town consisting of about 150 prarie dogs. I think they are so funny because they have lookouts that stand a top their mounds caling out alrams to the others because we were in the vacinity. There were also two pronghorn fauns laying in the grass perfectly camouflaged. Their mother must have hid them there for the night.

The prarie dogs are endangered because so many people shoot them because they are considered varmit. Prarie dogs have a natural symbiotic relationship with bison. The prarie dogs replenish the soil through digging and the bison keep the grass short enabling the prarie dogs to see predators in the distance. Prarie dogs could thrive on ranches because the cattle fill that niche the bison have left in Utah as there are no longer wild bison in the praries of Utah. With proper education for ranchers they could set up a system to benefit ranchers with the prarie dogs on their land. 

We left the prarie dog town and headed to Zion. Zion was a short drive not longer than an hour from Bryce. The park was amazing and once again there were way too many people. We did Angel's Landing, a very neat hike. The trail was tretcherous but it made for a great experience. We had to hold on to chain linked railings on parts of the hike because of the dangers of falling to our deaths. The risk was worth it. the view from the top was awesome.

When we got back to the bottom we discussed how the park is very "green." It is the most environmentally friendly operated park in the US. Their buildings were energy efficient with solar chimneys and they use a unique shuttle service. Their visitor center uses  windows as natural lighting and natural ventilation to cool and heat the building. There are parts of the park that you can only access by using the shuttle. This decreases emissions tremendously and prevents the more touristy people from crowding the more scenic challenging hikes. A lot of people like to do parts of hikes but this may prevent them from even bothering to attempt it. Before the day ended we tested the currents of the Virgin River that runs through th park. It was a lot of fun. Some of the lighter weighing girls got swept off by the currents. It gave us a little scare but all and all they were fine making it kind of funny. The water felt amazing after the strenuous hike.