Zion National Park–Tourist Day

 

On April 29, we started our visit to Zion National Park. We like to start each visit to a National Park by doing what we call a “Tourist Day”. We basically do what a tourist would do in a single day visit. We like to talk to as many people as possible to learn from them and then decide what else we want to do while we are there.

We started by coming in the East Entrance, which is about a 30 mile drive from our campground.

It was a beautiful sunny day. We got very lucky with the weather while we were visiting Zion. As we drove into the park, the views were awesome. I took so many pictures, I had a hard time picking which ones to put in this blog.

Consider the fact that at one time this was a 3000 foot high sand dune.

The layers and patterns in the rocks are amazing.  We marveled at how plants could find root in the formations. The sandstone is very porous and allows water to pass through to feed the plants.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had to wait at the tunnel as a large 5th wheel squeezed through. I talked to the guy afterwards and he had no clue where he was going or that this tunnel was even there. Some of the best views of the main Zion Canyon are right after the tunnel. The truck is in this shot for perspective. The rocks are HUGE!

We saw some rock climbers high up on the walls. People come from all over the world to climb these big walls. Can you find them in the large crack in the center. Some of the climbs take two to three days. I can’t even imagine sleeping in a hammock high on a rock.

 

You can’t tour most of Zion via automobile. They have these very nice tour busses that you can get off and on as many times as you like. The problem is parking. We stopped at the museum and were lucky enough to find a parking spot. We rode the tour busses the rest of the day.

After watching the film and touring the museum, we found a quiet place by the Virgin River and had lunch.

Here was our view from out lunch spot:

I will remember that meal for a long time. The food was not outstanding, but the atmosphere made up for it. My kind of 5 star dining.

Then we got on the tour bus and hit all of the stops in the main canyon. First up was the Court of the Patriarchs. That would be Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, left to right.

There were other people around all day, but the crowds were not bad at all. The next stop was the Zion Lodge. It is a real nice lodge and a great place to stay if you are doing a driving trip.

The next stop is for the Grotto and Angels Landing. The Angels landing hike is one of the signature hikes in Zion. It is only about 5.5 miles, but the end is along a narrow spine with 1000 foot drops on both sides. We chickened out and decided we did not need to do that one. The next stop was weeping rock. We hiked about a mile up to the rock and back. It was steep!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was water seeping through the rocks above this cool alcove. The views from inside the alcove were very interesting. Can you see the water coming down?

We rested for a while after the climb up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last stop for the day was the Temple of Sinewava. It is at the end of the road up through the main valley. This is where there is a river walk along the Virgin River. At the end of that walk is the start of the section called the “Narrows”. I have heard about this hike for years. You walk up the river, in the river at times. I have heard it gets pretty deep, like around chest deep. We were not sure we wanted to do it. It is still early in the season and the water would be very cold. We walked the 1.2 miles up to check it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kim played in the water along the way. It was a very busy area, but we did get very good information about the hike and decided we needed to do it. You can rent gear, but after talking to a number of folks that had just finished it, we decided we did not need to do that. Would that be the right answer? You will have to come back for a later entry to find out.

Here is Kim at the beginning of the Narrows:

We saw this deer along the trail:

The river trail and some yellow columbines:

It had been a long day, so we got back to the Museum and headed out of the park. The setting sun created some very good lighting for some pictures. This is Zion:

We even had a local say good bye as we were leaving.

I only got pictures of this one Rocky Mountain Sheep. There was a large herd in the valley on the other side of the road.

We are just getting started with this visit to Zion. It saddens me to think that this is all that most people see when they visit this National Park. This is just the beginning. Stay tuned for the rest of our visit to this majestic place.

Moving Day from Bryce NP to Bryce Zion Campground

 

On April 28, we moved from Bryce Canyon National Park to a private campground called Bryce Zion Campground. It was a move of about 60 miles. We liked our campsite in the North campground in Bryce, but wanted to get closer to Zion NP. Here are a couple of shots of our site at Bryce:

It was a pull-through, but we could not get through there, so we backed in and parked the truck behind. It worked great.

We got going and headed out at 11:31. How do I remember that? Well, checkout time is 11:30 and we were pushing that. They wanted $5 to dump, so we knew we would have a free dump station where we were going. I have never seen a fee for dumping when you are camping. I was told it was because the campground just outside of the park complained that nobody was paying them to dump at their park. Very strange and hints at an under the table issue. I will just leave it at that.

We arrived at Bryce Zion Campground and there was not a single rig in the place. It is right on the highway, but is in a beautiful valley. I had read on-line about this place. It was a KOA, but that recently changed. We loved this campground. The road noise is a non-issue at night. The wi-fi is fast, which is good because we have no cell signal. We saved on cell data while we were there. The staff is extremely friendly and the views are great. We found much to like about this place that will become obvious over the next few posts. Here is a picture of our site:

Here is our view:

The big thing is we have ELECTRICITY! We can use the microwave. The first thing I did was cook a bag of popcorn. We can turn on all the lights we want without worrying about using up the batteries. We are good boondocking, but a month was enough. We will enjoy the modern conveniences for a while.

While we were setting up another rig pulls in. The guy comes by to ask about the place. I guess the girl in the office had left for a minute. His name is Merrell and his wife is Joy. The are from Calgary, Alberta. We got to talking and quickly became friends. They got parked in a site up the hill from us. We had them over for a glass of wine that evening and had a great time getting to know each other. What an awesome chance meeting. It was great to compare notes after each others day of adventures for the next few days. For much of the time we were there, we were the only two rigs in the place. By the end of the week, we counted 11 rigs. It looks like things get busy around here about May 1.

Are you ready for Zion? Well, I have way over a thousand pictures I took at Zion over the next week. The next post will be the beginning of that unreal adventure. I have reviewed the pictures and I am not sure where to begin. I will think about that and do my next update as soon as I decide. Zion National Park is HUGE!

More Exploring in Bryce Canyon National Park

 

After the snow event on Saturday, April 25, it got pretty cold. We had low temps in the mid 20’s. This is the coldest we can remember camping without electricity. We have propane heat, but it was still a bit cold for us.

On Sunday, I took a drive to refill a propane tank and check out another campground just outside the park. The snow on the rock cliffs provided a different view.

The Kings Creek Campground is very nice, but the water was not turned on yet. They do have ORV trails that lead right out of the campground and it is only 7 miles down a dirt road. The road is in excellent shape and the lake is really pretty. This is only 10 miles from the entrance of Bryce.

On the drive out, I got a shot of these local residents. There are significant numbers of Pronghorns in this area.

On Monday, April 27, we decided to do the full driving tour of Bryce. This is what most tourists do in this park. the drive to the southern end of the park is a 17 mile drive that brings you to 9000 feet in elevation. The snow, once again added something to the view. It was a bit cold, but a nice day otherwise.

We just stopped at all of the viewpoints and spent time checking out each of the formations. We notice how many other people are in a hurry and stop and take a picture and leave. We tend to linger and take a bunch of pictures.

Kim likes to read every word on the signs. We learn a lot from them. We both like to look at the formations from just about every angle available.

As we dropped down the canyon, there was less snow and we returned to the views we had seen from down in the canyon on our hike.

I think the best viewpoint is Bryce Point. I could stand there all day taking pictures and just marveling at the formations. You can see the wall of windows in this shot.

We then went out the park entrance and went to two other places that you access from outside the park. One is Fairyland Point.

Then we went to Mossy Cave. The cave was not very impressive, but the waterfall was pretty cool.

Well that about does it for Bryce Canyon. That is 4 of the Big 5 complete and only Zion left to fully explore. To say that the Utah National Parks have exceeded expectations would be an understatement. This has been an amazing journey. To see each in a day is like going to Washington D.C. and saying you have seen America. We consider ourselves so lucky to be able to have the time to fully explore while we are still young enough to do the more strenuous activities. We have just been blown away.

I love this last shot of Kim. She loves to take it all in. I don’t know what she is thinking, but I am sure it has something to do with thanking God for these incredible gifts.

Have a great day and take a minute to appreciate your surroundings. On to Zion, and a little walk up a creek.

Recovery and a Little Innocent Drive

 

On April 24, we did nothing. It was recovery day from the big hike in Bryce Canyon. We were both very tired and sore. I took only one picture.

I went for a short walk to try to loosen up the muscles and caught these storm clouds over the canyon. We knew we were in for colder temps and some possible SNOW!

On Saturday, April 25, we decided we needed to get out and do something and walking was out of the question. Rigor mortis had set in and both of us were having trouble walking down the three stairs from the bedroom to the living room in our trailer. We also wanted to go to church in Cedar City (78 miles away). We also needed a Walmart stop. We had not seen a Walmart in over a month. I also needed to get my prescriptions filled and the closest Walgreens was in Cedar City. I looked at the map and decided that we could make a drive down through Zion National Park and then turn back north to hit I 15 to Cedar City and then come back to Bryce Canyon by way of Hwy 14 that goes by Cedar Breaks National Monument. The only problem was that Cedar Breaks is not open for the season yet. I wondered why…

We got going, albeit very slowly, and made it to the truck to head out. I turned on my heated seat to act as a heating pad for my aching back. We drove the 70 or so miles to the entrance of Zion National Park. The East Entrance road is a marvel all by itself. It was built in 1934. It is beautiful. It was a cloudy day, but I still got a few pictures.
This is Checkerboard Mesa:

In the middle of that road, there is a tunnel that was bored right through the rock. The cool thing is that there are windows in the tunnel. The view out the windows is awesome. Here is a shot looking back up the valley at the windows for the tunnel:

One note is that the clearance in the tunnel is 13 feet, 1 inch. Well our trailer is 13 feet, 1 inch. I don’t think we will drive it that way. Part of the reason for taking this trip was to find out mare about camping options near Zion. We looked at the campground and it was crowded and not where we wanted to stay. So, we looked at a few other options.

The size of the rock walls in Zion is amazing. Pictures just can’t capture the majesty.

I can’t wait to explore more and get some pictures on a sunny day.

We drove on through Springdale, which is a cool little town, and on to Cedar City. It was cold with intermittent rain. We got all of our business done in Cedar City and made church at 5:30. This was a normal size church. Then it was time to head back to Bryce. I knew we were going to gain some altitude as we went up near Cedar Breaks NM, but I did not do enough research to know how much. When we saw the first car coming in the opposite direction covered in snow, we got a bit concerned. The drive was beautiful at first.

The road was just wet at first, but we could see the snow up higher. We aren’t going up that high…are we? Well, we started to climb and climb. We passed 8000 and it started snowing, then 9000 and we were in heavy snow and the road was snow packed, then 10000 and we were in a blizzard. I was in 4 wheel drive and going about 20 MPH, but the truck never wavered and we just kept going.

Oh, yeah, the road got real curvy also. It was nerve wracking. Once we got to the top it leveled out and slowly lost altitude. When we got back down to 8000 the road was just wet and on we went back to Bryce. Along the way, I noticed some signs for designated ORV trails in the Dixie National Forest. I may need to check that out while I am in the area.

Once we got out of the snow we came across a heard of elk by the side of the road.

Oh well, that was the adventure for the day. I could really use less of those. We have some more exploring to do at Bryce Canyon over the next few days and then it will be on to Zion. Utah is an amazing state. If you have not been here, plan to make an extended trip at one point in your life. Just don’t wait too long, you will need your youth as much as possible to explore this incredible place.