As springtime continues, I try to find new and exciting locations for my landscape photography.  I recently took another such trip and came back with something worth looking at, in my opinion.  This time, I took a springtime look at what Zion National Park offers.  I haven’t poked into that national park much during this season.  It was time for a portfolio expansion.  Keep reading to learn more about what I captured.

Thanks to the presence of the Virgin River, Zion National Park has a great green springtime showing.  There’s a lot to see before the heat of summer kicks into this desert.  This time, I chose to investigate the famous Emerald Pools.  They promised to make a great addition to my landscape photography portfolio.

On this hike, I learned that I really needed to research things better.  I knew that there were a couple places to access the recessed Emerald Pools area.  However, I planned on using an easy trail.  All my books and internet research said just how easy it is.  It’s paved and wheelchair accessible.  However, I didn’t research what the park news releases had to say.  If I would have, I would have planned a different route.  Currently (at time of writing), the trail to the Emerald Pools from the lodge is closed.  Apparently, there’s a stability problem with a bridge on that trail.  It’s been closed for a year now.

We ended up needing to take a tougher trail that the 1 originally planned.  I can tell you, it was still a very popular trail.  Lots of people want to see the Emerald Pools.  We hardly had any moments of solitude on the trail.  It’s THAT popular.  This trail, the Kayenta trail, is rocky.  However, it will take you to the Emerald Pools.

We made the trek and finally arrived at a very popular scene.  There’s tall but thin waterfalls trickling down and mist in the air.  The plant life is lush.  It’s so green there thanks to springtime.

I investigated the lower and middle pools.  We didn’t have time to see the upper pool before we needed to descend and return to the shuttle.  We didn’t want to walk all the way back out to the visitors’ center parking lot.  While there, we heard the sounds of birds and frogs.  Those frogs were very loud.  At least I think they were frogs.  The constant noise got much louder as I approached the middle pools and even louder as I reached the back pool where I saw frogs.  Perhaps it was insects instead.  I don’t know.  What I do know is that it was loud.

The most surprising thing was that we received a text message while up there.  The area is so recessed I didn’t think there was cell phone signal.  I guess there was enough for a text to get through.

I made several attempts to take a portfolio-worthy photo.  Afterwards, we returned down the trail and back to the car.  We made our way out of the park during the glorious light of golden hour.  I couldn’t help but stop and try to take advantage of that light, even if the skies were boring and empty.

Once done there, we exited the park.  But that wasn’t the end of my photography for the day.  In fact, we drove by a ranch which keeps bison.  Those very buffalo were close to the fence.  I decided to give it a try.  This is what I walked away with.

I sure enjoyed this trip.  Springtime in Zion is beautiful.  I now have a new favorite place in the park as well.  Perhaps we’ll figure out how to overcome some hurdles and capture glorious photos of the Emerald Pools themselves.  Currently, transportation is an issue.  The trams don’t run early or late enough.  Still, we’ll do our best there.

If you have any good and cheap (preferably free) ideas of how to get into or out of the canyon during peak season without the tram (other than feet), please share them in the comments section below.  We’ll look into them for another springtime in Zion trip.