Sunrise at Zion

When you ride the shuttle up canyon in Zion National Park, a recorded voice points out various highlights and points of interest. One thing that caught our ear on a recent ride was a description of the park's museum being the perfect spot to view sunrise at Zion. With temperatures expected to top the century mark today, we decided to get up before the sun and enjoy the park in its early morning glory. We were up just a bit later than we'd planned, but we arrived at the museum just in time to see West Temple basking in the glow of the morning sun.

Yes, the best way to enjoy the sun rising in the east here is to look to the west. Here's a closer look at West Temple catching the day's first light.

Everywhere we looked, sunlight was dancing around the canyon, casting shadows and creating a marvelous glow.

We left our perch at the museum and headed toward the tunnel. From deep in the canyon, this is a view toward the east.

Just past the tunnel was a trailhead we'd be wanting to visit. The Canyon Overlook trail is a moderate one-mile hike that offered some fantastic views long before we reached the overlook.

Of course, the view at the overlook was magnificent!

What a perfect spot for a photo of Paul sporting his new hat. Doesn't he look dapper?

Here's my self-portrait at the overlook.

A friendly hiker offered to capture this shot of the two of us at the overlook. (We are at the overlook, really!) After all of this early morning activity, we were happy to head back to the moose for a lazy afternoon.