Zion was the first national park we visited, and as you can see from the graph in the overview, it is the most frequently visited. We stayed in St. George, and drove about 40 miles until we reached the park. Partly because we got a late start, and partly because we later found out it was Spring Break in this part of Utah, the town of Springdale was hopping. This town is the jumping off spot for most attractions in Zion. Parking was non-existent, and we quickly got discouraged that our plan of spending the day hiking would be quashed. By happenstance, we visited the Hoodoo General Store and in the women's restroom, I noticed a sign that if you purchased $20 worth of items, you could park free for the day! Since we had already purchased over $15, they kindly let us add a few more items and we got our free parking. While I wouldn't consider a sign in the restroom to be the most effective marketing technique, it worked for us and we were off on our adventure.
We tried to take the shuttle into the park but since we were fairly late in the list of shuttle stops, all the shuttles going past us were full and didn't stop. We finally ended up walking the 1/2 mile or so into the park. The town of Springdale is very well-organized and has lots of hotels, so I could imagine staying there next time would be a lot more convenient.
The park itself has a shuttle system as well, which is mandatory during high season. We went in early April, trying to miss the really cold weather but avoid the heat and the crowds, and while I believe we missed "peak" season it was still plenty crowded.
The park information guide you receive upon entering includes a table on hiking information. Very handy to have, and something we should have studied earlier to do a more thorough job planning our hikes. We decided we weren't up for the more famous-but-strenuous "Angel's Landing" (needs a reservation) or "The Narrows" (large crowds) hikes, so opted to do Emerald Pools. The Lower Pool was rated as easy, and we thought we'd get there and see how we felt.
The line for the shuttle was kind of like Disneyland. We were required to wear a mask, and since we didn't have one in our hiking bags it was one of the things we picked up at the General Store. Then we found out they were handing them out in the shuttle line! Luckily the shuttles were like double-buses, so without too much waiting we were onboard and on our way. But this gave us a good idea of how many families there were in the park, as many groups had 5 or more people!
We exited the shuttle at Zion Lodge, since that was the nearest stop to our Emerald Pool hike. Here's a partial map of the shuttle stops:
If you look closely you can see that there is one trail if you are going to the Middle Emerald Pool and another if you are going to the Lower Pool, with both continuing on to the Upper Pool. Since we weren't sure how far we were going, we decided to take the route on the right, to Lower Emerald Pool.
First of all, these pools didn't look Emerald to me! Supposedly they are home to aquatic green algae, but perhaps we were there at the wrong time of year. And the Middle Pool was more of a puddle, but perhaps if we had taken the trail on the left we would have seen something more scenic.
The walk to the Lower Pool was very easy and wide, even wheelchair accessible. Unfortunately, that means there are tons of people there! You actually walk under the falls as you proceed up the trail, and the cool mist felt good. With so many people there, though, I didn't feel like I could linger.
We decided to proceed up the trail to the Upper Pool. At this point it became more narrow and steep, a combination of rocks, steps, and dirt trail. After the Middle Pool it became even more challenging, and at times you had to wait for people coming the other direction to be able to proceed. At last we reached the top of the trail, and relaxed at the Upper Pool. It was a small pool surrounded by rocks and small sandy patches. Many families took advantage of the opportunity to lounge in the shade and have a snack.
You can tell from these videos how many people were there. So while the scenery was absolutely stunning, and everyone was courteous on the trail, we didn't enjoy this park as much as we would have if it were less crowded.
Here is a collection of photos from the scenery we enjoyed on this part of the adventure.
After our hike we decided to grab a bite to eat at the cafe next to the Lodge. Imagine your craziest food-ordering experience, and it might come close to what that was like. Everyone crowded in a small space, trying to see the menu, dads taking orders for the rest of the family and then sending them outside, it was nuts! After about a 30 minute wait, we got our lunch. Rick had secured us a nice table outside so we enjoyed our food and the view, took photos for a solo hiker, and visited the gift shop. Heading back to the shuttle, we came back through the entrance, took more photos, and headed back to the car. I think the funniest thing of the trip so far was the commentary by the shuttle driver who took us back to town. She was commenting under her breath about other drivers, made fun of people who got off on the first shuttle stop (literally across the road), etc. And as she said, "this isn't even peak season yet folks!"
On our way out we decided to try to get a photo in front of the park entrance, since this was a part of our new tradition (idea stolen from Liz and Clair). By now it was so windy that it kept blowing my hat off! The motorists on the road beside us must have enjoyed our efforts. The only way we could get a photo was for Rick to clamp his hand on top of my head! Clearly we still need to work on our selfie skills, you can't even see the name of the park in this shot!
One of the locations we learned about from the "Secrets of the Utah National Parks Map" was called Kolob Canyon. Since we were done hiking for the day, we decided to drive there as we had most of the afternoon left. It was a beautiful drive up a curving road. We noticed a few antique cars heading the opposite direction, and when we got up to the top there were a many more in the parking lot. It must have been an event for some car club. What a fun way to "cruise"! The first of the photos below is taken from a moving car. I swear, everywhere you look is beautiful scenery. And in case you're not aware, the speed limit is 80 on the freeways in Utah!
Anyway, we enjoyed the scenery, and buffeted by the wind we took one more selfie shot before heading back to our hotel.
The Zion adventures were not over yet. The next morning, again using a tip from our handy-dandy map, we decided to visit the ghost town of Grafton. I think Rick let out a bit of a gulp when he saw the road into the area, but heck, it's a rental car, right?
We bumped and manuevered down the dirt road, and eventually came upon the Grafton cemetary. The signage gave us our first glimpse of the history of this town.
1866 was indeed a hard year for these folks! What a sad little cemetary.
The town itself was used for scenes in the movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid", and since Rick is a fan, of course we had to see it!
They had nice signage to tell the history of the area. Since the photos are too small for you to read, I'll summarize here:
1847 – Brigham Young – Mormons settled in Utah – escaping religious persecution and were sent on colonizing missions to secure territory and resources
1859 – 5 families settled, planted cotton – there was a bad flood, plus they determined they needed the land for food
1866 – Navajo raid and other deaths (see above cemetary signage)
1886 – Built schoolhouse – shown in above left photo. This building was used for school, church, and a community meeting place. For example, Friday night dances were held and people came from miles around. This building was last used in 1919.
All in all, an interesting and sobering piece of history to start off our day.
After that, we continued our way through the park, getting a better selfie shot, then continuing up the canyon to the tunnel that would allow us to exit out the east end of the park. There was a ton of great scenery, and lots of nice turnouts to capture it.
While hunting around for information on Zion, I located this great video of someone driving the scenic drive. If you ignore the buggy windshield and reflections off the dash, you can definitely get a better feel for the drive than from the photos alone.
Or if you want a visual aid, here's a picture of the road taken by looking at my phone while we were waiting for the tunnel to clear out.
Based on the little research I had done prior to this trip, I definitely wasn't prepared for the TUNNEL! My first clue was when the guy who took our photo commented that there were no cars coming down the road (thus we could cross easily) because they were all waiting on the other end of the tunnel. We experienced about a half hour wait, and then a huge bus came through followed by a bunch of cars.
A bit of research on why they limit traffic to one-way for large vehicles yielded this information from the NPS website:
Construction of the 1.1 mile Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel began in the late 1920s and was completed in 1930. At the time that the tunnel was dedicated, on July 4, 1930, it was the longest tunnel of its type in the United States.
Before 1989, large vehicles, including tour buses, motor homes, and trailers, were involved in more and more accidents and near misses in the tunnel due to an immense increase in the volume of traffic and in the size of vehicles passing through the tunnel.
A study by the Federal Highways Administration in early 1989 found that large vehicles could not negotiate the curves of the tunnel without crossing the center line. To ensure safety, the National Park Service began traffic control at the tunnel in the spring of that year.
Rangers posted at both ends of the tunnel convert two-way tunnel traffic to one-way for larger vehicles, ensuring safe passage.
This service, for which a $15 dollar tunnel permit fee is charged, was provided for over 32,832 oversized vehicles in calendar year 2019.
Now we know why we had to wait!
The remainder of the trip was uneventful. We had considered stopping at the other end of the tunnel because there was supposed to be a short hike to an overlook with a stunning view, but traffic was crazy and the parking lot was tiny and full, so we gave up on that idea. The drive through the other side was amazing, everywhere I looked it was PURE ROCK! This was our first clue that every park would have something different to offer.
I actually ended up buying a book in Capitol Reef to learn more about the rocks in the National Parks of Utah. In the meantime, here is some information about how the scenery we were seeing in Zion was formed.
The thing we hadn't yet considered was the elevation change. We had checked weather in terms of general temperatures, and were a little worried about snow, but there was none in the forecast. What I didn't take into account was that our next park, Bryce Canyon, was at an elevation of nearly 9,000 feet, and I was traveling there in shorts!
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