Emerald Pools and connector trail to the Court of the Patriarchs

 For our second hike today, we took the shuttle to the Zion Lodge stop, hiked up to Lower, Middle and Upper Emerald Pools, then the connector trail towards Sand Bench Trail, recrossed the river to the Court of the Patriarchs. This was about 5 miles with 500 ft of elevation gain.
It was beautiful walking from the shuttle stop to the Emerald Pool trail, the views from the bridge crossing the Virgin River are outstanding. Looking north:

 and looking south,

 looking back across the river to the east side

 The trail to the lower Emerald Pool is fairly flat. The trail goes under the overhang with the water dripping off the overhand.

 Looking back at the overhang above the lower emerald pool.

 the trail then climbs up to the middle emerald pool

 where the pool drains over the edge,

 view from middle emerald pool

The trail then continues to climb up to upper emerald pool

Waterfall at upper emerald pool with a partial vertical pano

 waterfall at the upper emerald pool

 The middle emerald pool loop trail was closed for renovation, so we returned the way we came up, the views continued to be beautiful.
















Instead of returning to the shuttle at the lodge to go to the Court of the Patriarchs, we decided to stay on the west side of the Virgin River and take the connector trail towards the Sand Bench Trail. Most of this connector trail is in the woods, and is a horse trail. We had some peek a boo views of the canyon wall to the east.

 we encountered some wild turkeys

They had large foot prints.

 We had great views near the end of this connector trail,

 with peeks towering above us.

 There were many wildflowers and cacti in bloom.

We saw very few people on this connector trail.

 another bridge crossing took us back over the Virgin River, looking south:

 looking north:

The Court of the Patriarchs trail is only 0.1 of a mile, this goes to a viewpoint looking towards the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

 some of the many wildflowers and plants we saw in bloom today: