Kolob Arch

My dad and sister came out for the weekend. They drove all the way down from Washington state, stopping at a couple capital cities of the states on the way, which is what my sister likes to do. We drove out to Lava Point on the first day we had together. Jacqueline and I thought it would be an easy way to see much of the park since my sister does not like to hike much. We checked out the views and then Dad and I headed down the closed West Rim trail to fix the trail counter, while Jacqueline and Joni went for a walk on the Wildcat Canyon Trail. Dad and I fixed the counter and then met the two of them coming on back. We finished it up with a trip up to the Reservoir where my dad and I enjoyed a nice dip. The next day, I was able to switch days off so that my dad and I were able to hike out to Kolob Arch. We drove out to the Kolob Visitor Center, where Milt talked to Dad about the good ol' days since my dad said something about working at Rainier. We got to the trailhead and headed for the Arch. It was going to be a fourteen mile day in the one hundred degree weather of Zion once again. It was fairly normal to the both of us since my dad spent about five years working down at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Although I visited the Arch last month, this would be the first time since 2002 that I would head down the La Verkin Creek Trail. It dropped quite steadly for the first four miles. Then we hit the creek and checked out the swimming hole Milt told us about. We decided to hit that on the way back. Then it was just another 2.5 miles to the junction with the arch trail. It was a good day for it because of all the monsoonal rains, the trail was not as sandy as normal. We hit the junction and from there it was just another half mile to the arch. We went up the creek that flows all year round. We made it to the viewpoint where the arch just sort of sneaks up on you. We ate some food and snapped some pictures, then were off for the return trip. We made it back to the swimming hole which seemed like it had been recently filled in by a flash flood. I sat in the upper part the most because it was similar to a hot tub with the jets, although the water was just cool enough to give us fifteen minutes of relief as we climbed the hill out. We made it fine. Dad's foot held up well and we headed back to where we were staying down in Springdale.