Adventures in Zion: Chasing Cows

Shauna and I spent the weekend with my mom at Zion National Park for Mother's Day. The park more-or-less centers around the small town of Springdale just outside of the park's entrance. It's a very rural town split between touristy places (shops, restaurants, hotels and bed and breakfasts) and small ranches with pastures of cows. As with any small town, there's one main road going right up the middle.

On our way back to the hotel room after dinner at The Spotted Dog (which I highly recommend), we spotted someone's cow loose on the highway. The obvious concern was that someone would end up running into the cow, destroying their car and probably doing some serious damage to the animal. We checked the houses next to the pasture but couldn't find anyone home. Obviously, this meant we had to round up the cow for them.

We spent about an hour chasing the cow through weeds and a ravine, but we got him penned up. (The absent homeowner's dog figured out what was going on and helped us corner the steer in a pen.) I think that was far more entertaining than anything else we could have planned for the evening.