All of my many many trips to Zion, and I'm embarrassed to admit that I had never done the hike to Emerald Pools until last month. It's hard to explain why. Oh, it was closed on one trip, and then it was always the wrong shuttle stop, or I dunno, I guess I don't really have a great excuse. On my trip last month, however, I was able to carve out the time and make the hike.
Emerald Pools is most commonly accessed from the Zion Lodge shuttle stop, but we actually came at it from The Grotto on what is officially called the Kayenta Trail. Doing so means that you'll have some excellent down-canyon views that you might not otherwise see, but it does take a little bit longer and the hike is largely through exposed hillside. Because the pools themselves nestle right into the upper neck of a canyon, you get some shade from the steep walls, but approaching from The Grotto means you'll need to be more conscious of the weather.
We ambled along until reaching a fork at a massive boulder. This is where the shortest trail from the Zion Lodge trailhead comes in to meet you. We continued upward to what we thought was the upper pool, but it turns out it was just a middle pool (?) and there's another fork that takes you up to a trail that will deliver you upwards to the dead end top of the canyon and the big upper pool.
The lower pool is more tricky. If you're on the upper pool spur, you'll need to go back to that boulder and take the lower trail. We turned west at the end of the fork, and though we were just above the pool, that upper trail hugs the ridgeline, gradually drops you back down to the Virgin River where you'll backtrack a bit to the bridge and then go to the Lodge. This upper trail parallels the lower trail and though you think you could hop from one to the other, you need to realize that you're separated by a hundred feet-maybe two--of unpassable sheer dropoff. Some maps don't even show this upper trail, and the ones that do draw the upper and lower very close together, though they're on entirely different elevations.
I would have liked to have seen the lower pool, but the bonus about taking that upper trail that overshoots the bridge and takes you back to the river and then the Lodge, is that there was hardly a soul on the trail. It was spring break while I was there and things were packed, so on that upper spur especially, foot traffic would be one way for a while and you'd have to wait for passing hikers. But on that last upper bit, we had it mostly to ourselves.
The pools are lovely little oases. The present of water coming off of the cliffs to form pools and little falls is something of a revelation that blows your mind. With steep cliffs and shade and running water, this trail delivers some real gems. read more