Tag: Zion National Park

Posted in: Animal Sightings, Exploring Utah, Hiking, National Park, National Parks, Sightseeing

Zion National Park: Canyon Overlook Trail

Written by tepetravels

Yesterday was a boring day at the RV. Lots of school work for the boys, work for Ben, and I worked on some outdoor maintenance on the RV.

With our time coming to an end at Zion, I still wanted to get to the Canyon Overlook Trail. After everyone’s work was done for the day, we headed off to Zion. This trail is off of the Zion-Mt. Caramel Highway, right after the tunnel, so you do not need a shuttle pass. Parking is tight. There is only a small lot (compact cars only) with a bathroom across from the trail. However, there are more parking options further up the road (a mix of parking lots and off road parking). We had to drive for a while, turn around, and then come back to find a spot. It was totally worth it though!

This trail begins with stone steps going up the side of the hill. As you walk up, you get a great view of the tunnel. Some of the spots are narrow, some are against the edge of the hillside. There are railings along some of the edges, so no worries about falling over (which if you know my klutziness and Nick, you can understand the worry). You cross a walkway/bridge and come to this great natural overhang. It provided a lot of shade and was a nice break from the sun. There were some plants growing along the back wall, which made for a really neat spot to take a break.

The trail has some really neat rock formations. There were also a few spots for the boys to climb, which is always a big hit. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife, only a lizard and a chipmunk. The chipmunks here are fast! Our chipmunks back home must be lazy, because they don’t move anywhere near as fast as these ones do.

At the end of the trail is the overlook. You can see the road leading up to the tunnel, Zion Canyon, Pine Creek Canyon, Bridge Mountain, West Temple, Alter of Sacrifice, Streaked Wall, and the Sentinel. They have a sign that points out the different views, which I really found helpful.

It was a great hike and I am glad we got it in!

On our way out of the park, we stopped at the Museum. The museum itself is closed (COVID), but you can park in the parking lot and take a trail or look at the views. There are a few informational signs around, one of which is about a natural bridge (arch) along the mountainside. I never would have noticed it without the sign, it blended in so well. We also saw a whiptail lizard along the fence line.

Every time we drive back to the campground from Zion, we pass a historical marker sign. We had never stopped before, but today I decided to see what it was. It was the coolest marker ever. The mesa on the other side of the road has a rocket sled test track! I didn’t even know such a thing existed.

Posted in: Animal Sightings, Exploring Utah, Hiking, Injuries, National Park, National Parks, Sightseeing, YouTube Video Link

Zion Adventures: The Narrows

Written by tepetravels 1 Comment on Zion Adventures: The Narrows

Our passes weren’t until 11:00, so we packed up some snacks and lots of water. Everyone dressed in wicking clothes so we would dry off faster. We headed towards Zion a little early because I was worried about parking. The Visitor Lot fills up really quickly and although you can park in the town of Springdale and take their shuttle to Zion, I really wanted to park inside the park. I figured that after hiking we would be tired and would want to be able to leave as soon as possible.

We picked up our hiking gear (Zion Guru) and went into the park. I would say we got there around 9:45/10:00 am and the lot was half to 3/4 full. We had already put on our socks and boots at the store. Zion’s Visitor Center was closed (COVID), but they had lots of informational signs outside. We read those for a while and then attended a Ranger Program at 10:30. It was about mountain lions and was pretty interesting. Did you know they can leap 45 feet?!

A little before 11:00 we boarded the shuttle and headed in. We were going to do the Narrows hike that does not require a permit (Bottom-Up), the one that starts at the end of Riverside Trail (stop 9 on the shuttle). It is listed as a moderate to strenuous trail; how hard the hike is depends on water depth and flow.

The start of The Narrows Trail at the end of Riverside Trail.

It was surprisingly busy. The river was pretty shallow at the entrance point here, although it is still cold. You could probably walk here with just sandals on. The farther in you go, there are sections that got up to upper thigh on me. (Later in the hike, we heard other people talking that it was chest high farther down. The man was at least 6 foot tall, so I’m glad we didn’t get that far!)

Some spots in the river were clear and you could see the rocks and judge your path. Some spots were murky, I’m not sure if it was the crowd that stirred it up or the algae, but you couldn’t see the bottom. We were so glad to have the hiking poles to test the depth in front of us.

We saw plants growing from the walls, lots of different sizes and colors of rocks, Mystery Falls (a waterfall), Wall Street (narrowest part), and the Floating Rock (boulder in the middle of the river). We made it a little past the floating rock and decided to turn around. The Narrows is an in-and-out hike, and we were already tired. Everyone, except Will, had fallen at least once.

On our way back, Nick fell several more times in a row. We stopped and made sure he ate some peanut butter crackers and drank more water. After resting a few minutes, we started back again.

Ben jarred his back when he stepped in a hole. I tripped on a rock I couldn’t see and fell face first into the water. I will say I am glad we had on the water shoes that went above the ankle. I am sure I would have twisted something if I was in gym shoes. Will was still the winner at the end of the trail and had not fallen once!

We were exhausted when we were done. The shuttle line was long, and I would say we waited 45-60 minutes. We did see some deer and wild turkey while we waited. (YouTube video of walking the line for the shuttles.)

We returned our gear and headed home to take showers.

It was a once in a lifetime experience and really neat! If you were to hike the Narrows, I would definitely recommend renting equipment. The neoprene socks helped with the cold water and not having wet cotton socks rubbing on our feet was definitely a plus. The water shoes/boots were surprisingly helpful. Even the broom handle-ish walking stick seemed better suited than our normal walking sticks.

Posted in: Animal Sightings, Exploring Utah, Hiking, National Park, National Parks, Sightseeing

Zion National Park: We Got Passes!

Written by tepetravels

Ben and I ran into Muddy Bee Bakery and grabbed some items for breakfast: a raspberry lemon scone, a cinnamon roll, a loaf of sourdough, and breakfast sandwiches.

The breakfast sandwiches were the best!

We were able to get afternoon passes for the shuttle and headed up. The Visitor Center parking lot was packed, but we managed to find a spot.

The shuttle is running a lower capacity (about 33 people per shuttle-which is made of two buses each) due to COVID. Our first driver was great and pointed out several of the scenes in Zion along the route. We saw a few deer along the drive as well.

There were a few trails I had on my list, but several were closed due to rock falls (stops 2, 3, 4, and 7). We decided to walk the Riverside Trail (stop 9, the final stop). It is completely paved and ends at the river where the Narrows trail begins. It is a pretty easy walk, about 2 miles. The trail goes through a swamp area (crazy in the middle of a desert) and gives you peeks at the river. Some of the rock walls along the trail were seeping water. Different plants and flowers were growing out of the rocks near these spots and made for some very pretty scenery.

There are signs everywhere saying not to feed the wildlife (in particular a lot of “don’t feed the squirrels”). These squirrels are ballsy. They come right up to you and beg for food. You know how Custer State Park had begging burros? Zion definitely has begging squirrels.

We had to wait a little bit for the shuttle back, but it wasn’t too long.

We were able to get passes for the next day in the early afternoon and decided to hike the Narrows. We rented equipment from Zion Guru. The store was in Springdale, which is right outside the gates to Zion. It was $25/person and you got a hiking pole, neoprene water socks, and water shoes/boots.

Note: The park does state to wear a mask, but it is not really well enforced. There were people who kind of had it on for the shuttle and once boarded took it off.

Posted in: Exploring Utah, National Park, National Parks, Sightseeing

Zion Adventures: A Tunnel And A Mesa

Written by tepetravels

Zion is only 25-35 minutes away from our campground. We couldn’t get Zion Shuttle passes for our first couple of days there. In Zion during the main season, you need to park at the Visitor Center and take a shuttle along the Scenic Drive, the main road through the park. The shuttle passes have to be bought ($1/each) on recreation.gov. They go on sale each morning at 9:00 am MT for the next day. The morning and early afternoon passes go super fast, so get on right away to get the best time. If you are going in October, they are sold a little more in advance according to the website.

However, there is another way to see Zion if you can’t get passes right away! If you enter on the South Entrance, you enter through the Park Gates (they do check for passes/admission), and come to a split in the road. One goes to Scenic Drive (shuttle only right now) and the other goes on to the Zion-Mt. Caramel Highway, which you can drive on in your own vehicle. (If you enter on the East Entrance, you also pass through park gates and are already on this road. I believe it is also State Route 9.) You can find several trails and parking pull-outs along the road. You also drive through an awesome tunnel made in 1930. It is a mile long with windows cut out of the mountain. The windows were created for air, but also offer nice scenic views as you drive by. There are height restrictions though.

About the tunnel. You can see one of the windows in the mountain side.

The drive is worth it just for this tunnel! 🙂 There is another smaller tunnel along the road as well.

On the other side of the tunnel, you will find various trails and pull-outs. The landscape is really neat. The rock looks like it is layered. Ben called is phyllo dough rock, which is what it looked like!

We stopped at a pull-out to look at Checkerboard Mesa, which Will had just learned about in class! There was also someone painting in the parking lot.

It was towards the end of the day, so we didn’t do any hiking, but I did find a trail there that I want to do before we leave.

~Sarah

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