Fortunately the wind only last another few hours and remained quiet the rest of the night. Most of the people had quieted down too... but it didn't last for long. Before it was even light, car doors were slamming and vehicles were just left running. Then came the car alarms and of course, the crying baby. I packed up and headed out.

My route would take me a different way out of Zion, over the 13-mile long Zion-Mount Carmel Highway.

The morning sun slowly decends into the canyon.

The Great Arch overlooks Pine Creek Canyon.

Three years of construction went into the 1.1 mile tunnel which was completed in 1930. At the time, it was the longest tunnel of its type in the world. Its purpose was to create a direct route between Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon and Zion.

There were several large holes cut into the cliff...

... These were actually windows that lined the tunnel since there are no artificial lights inside.

Heading in...

These cutout windows (galleries) were the only source of light. In 1958, because of the softness of the sandstone, Gallery #3 collapsed, spilling tons of debris into the tunnel. Since then, much reinforcing has been done and concrete ribs now run the tunnel's entire length.

I stopped briefly (but don't tell anyone) since there was no one else in the tunnel this early.

The other side

I was about to continue driving when I noticed a trailhead across the street. The Overlook Trail was only a mile roundtrip, so I decided to do it. I was so glad I did for it was an amazing little trail! It was highly adventurous, in a non-scary way.

The "trail" wasn't super difficult but quite creative in spots.

It's hard to get a sense of scale, but the tiny single yellow pixel at the end of the red line...

... that's a person!

It was a long way down!

This is still the trail... cutting along a a shallow alcove with a seep at the back (obvious from all the green plants).

Peeking out from the alcove

Yup... trail.

I turned the corner and was suddenly in a whole different world of rock spires and shapes!

The view across the way

Continuing along the trail

Life will find a way!

The destination... the Overlook View! The white peak to the left is Bridge Mountain (6803 feet).

The West Temple (7810 feet)

The highway I had just come up on (leading up to the tunnel)

I took a bit of time wandering among the amazing rock formations. There was no shortage of things to marvel at!

In spite of it seeming so baren, there was lots of life.

Oops... I clearly woke this groggy Common Side-blotched Lizard from a nap!

Oaks

Pines

Junipers

At one point, I'm looking over the edge and suddenly see a bighorn sheep walk into view along the bottom of the valley. He takes his time but eventually climbs the center cliffs and proceeds to explore every last ledge... walking out to one, looking over it, spending a bit of time gazing in all directions, turning back into the trees again, only to appear at the tip of the next ledge. It definitely looked as if he were mapping out the territory.