Zion National Park

Zion is situated in SW Utah and has a scenic view of high plateaus and deep, narrow, sandstone canyons combined with beautiful rock towers and mesas. Unfortunately, we chose to visit at the same time as thousands (seriously!) of other tourists and although the views were stunning, there were no real hikes to do.










 It is a long, narrow crevice which inhibits free car movement so the only thing left to do is try to find a parking space along the entrance road (took us over an hour and we still wound up parking outside of the park and taking a courtesy bus back in!), and boarding the tour buses which run the whole length of the canyon park area.








Throw in some rain and we won't say it was a wasted day but it wasn't all that fun either. From the entrance that we came through there is a tunnel that was built in the 1930's and although it was built for 2 way traffic, it is controlled today to only allow 1 lane at a time. The larger rv's are allowed in so we imagined a 3-day tunnel clearing of cars in the past that brought brighter minds in to see the wisdom of this new system. :)







At any rate, the tunnel is over 1 mile long and is quite interesting to drive through. After our frustration of parking and riding, we elected to take the bus to the end and try an interesting hike to a river that flows through the canyon and offers a hike through the river to the Narrows.



 



At the end, to keep going, you have to walk into the water and continue on carrying all supplies high on your back. Apparently, there is a waterfall to see about a mile up the river. We also thought there wouldn't be as many people up there.









Oh ho! As you can see in the pictures, there were a few hundred of our 'closest' friends with us on this little venture.









We walked in the river for about a half mile and gave up. The surface was full of large, smooth rocks and I for one was concerned about landing in the river with my dry pack on. It was not a happy thought! To top off the day, as we got out of the water to walk the mile back to the bus, it started to thunder, lightning and rain.








Ok, synopsis of Zion: Beautiful views and stunning rock formations. Avoid summertime to visit due to intense crowds. Can see most of the best views if you drive to the entry gate from U.S. 89 from the east, drive the tunnel and back out!