The first important thing to note about Zion is that it is a narrow canyon. There are stunning views from the top of a trail called Angel's Landing - but it was far too hot for us to contemplate that. So we restricted ourselves
to a shorter hike to see the Emerald Pools. We can only think they were called that because they were named by Mr or Mrs Emerald - and that it sounded nice. But the hike was good for us and the vertiginous rock faces were very impressive indeed. Zion is a mecca for rock climbers, though many of the rock faces we saw did not look as though they could be climbed at all. We also had a number of altercations at one of the pools with a couple of quite obese rock squirrels, which just look like Greenwich Park squirrels, apart from their girth. We had to push them off our rucksacks as they tried to find a way in looking for food.
The second important thing about Zion is that the canyon has a river at the bottom of it. The river takes up most, if not all the width of the canyon and, providing you don't mind getting wet, you can hike up it. We did this in 2014 and we repeated the hike this time too - using our (cheap) Belize water shoes bought for caving. Going on a picnic in the river was great fun. It's not just small children that enjoy splashing about in puddles! Some of the photos are not as 'sharp' as usual - we had to keep the camera in a plastic bag in case we dropped it!
