Wednesday, April 16--Still Exploring Zion Area

The geocaching bug caught us on Wednesday morning. We discovered there was a cache in the ghost town near Zion where part of 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' was filmed. There were several others in areas we wanted to see, so off we went.

The drive to get to Grafton Ghost Town took us over a one lane bridge which on one of America's Scenic Backways.

We found the cache at Grafton, then looked around the town. We couldn't decide which house was used in the movie. We will have to get a copy so we can check it out. This is the one we think it was.

This is a zoom view of the same house. The gate was locked so we couldn't get close to look in the windows.
The other house didn't have any trees near it, but the view to the east was great.

We were able to walk around this one and look in the windows. The interior has not undergone renovation.
This building served as the church and the school.
This cabin was an original. It was built after the renovated house!

This barn is still being used by the rancher who lives near Grafton!

After finding the caches we were searching for, we went back to the rv for lunch and a rest.

Later in the afternoon, we caught the shuttle for the museum. It was interesting--there were numerous artifacts from the area.

We returned to the shuttle and rode to the trailhead for Weeping Rock. It is a short trail and we hadn't hiked it yet. The water seeps through the sandstone, hits the layer of shale and then finds it way out and down the side of the rock. Flowers and plants grow where the water seeps. When we viewed these hanging gardens, only the purple columbine was blooming. The narrative on the shuttle said the water seeping from the rock has been aged--it is about 1200 years old!

From Weeping Rock, we caught the shuttle to Court of the Patriarchs Overlook. I think this is the shortest trail in the park! It winds its way 50 yards to an overlook point. The sunset is supposed to be pretty good, but as you have probable guessed, we forgot the camera!

We enjoyed our visit to Zion. Thursday we headed toward Bryce Canyon National Park.