This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Posted: 1:13 PM- ZION NATIONAL PARK - After breakfast in the dining room of the Zion National Park Lodge, Laura Bush and her three hiking companions loaded two black government SUVs with gear, piled into a grey van with Nevada plates and black-tinted windows, and headed toward the Canyon Overlook Trail at the east end of the mile-long tunnel.
People staying at the lodge came and went freely Monday, many unaware of the VIP staying in a nearby room.
One guest - who only identified himself as "John" - said he and a friend were hiking around the lodge on Sunday and passed the first lady and her party.
"We knew she was in the area," he said. "We didn't recognize her [at first], then we stopped and said, 'Isn't that her?'"
One worker at the lodge, who declined to identify himself, when asked how things in the Lodge had changed because of Bush's visit, said jokingly, "If I told you, they'd have to kill me."
At the overlook trail head, many visitors were oblivious that the first lady was also on the 1-mile trail that ends with a view of some of the parks more spectacular features - natural formations known as the beehives, along with sheer cliffs of Navajo sandstone.
One woman, who also did not want to be named, said she passed the group coming down the trail. She had no idea it was Laura Bush and her annual contingent of hiking buddies.
Wearing a large, wide-brimmed hat, Bush waved to a reporter and photographer while walking to her vehicle at the trail-head parking lot.
Bush came to the park on Sunday to re-dedicate the Zion Nature Center. On Sunday night, she and members of her party had dinner at Bit 'n Spur restaurant in Springdale. She is expected to stay until Thursday or Friday.
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