Zion

NATIONAL PARK

By DIENEKE

Zion National Park was the sixth stop on our One Way Road Trip. At this point, we were committed to visiting Bryce Canyon and Zion in the same day, so after a magical morning at Bryce, we headed toward Zion, unprepared for immense increase in scale we were about to experience.

Zion is one of the top 10 visited parks in the NPS system and is Utah’s first national park (for more information about how you can protect Utah’s threatened parks, visit npca.org). Zion is named after Zion Canyon, 15 miles long and up to half a mile deep, cut through beautiful red and tan sandstone. There is so much to see in this massive park, but we only had time for Zion Canyon proper and will need to return to see Hurricane Cliffs and Kolob Canyons. Even still, just this section of the park was enough to fill the heart and soul with nature’s bounty.

We entered on the east end of the park through the Checkerboard Mesa and could sense we had entered a different world even though we were only across the highway.

There are two tunnels on the Zion-Mount Caramel Highway which can cause back-ups but the framed viewed at the end of each is worth the wait: an interesting juxtaposition between the man-made and God-made. We were determined to meet our rule of 2 hikes per park so we pulled off on the east side of the tunnel for the Canyon Overlook Trail. While only 1 mile in length, I was sweating bullets as my distrust for heights was greatly challenged; however, the breath I was holding during the hike was immediately released upon the view of Pine Creek Canyon and Lower Zion.

Once at Canyon Junction, we hightailed it to the Visitor Center to hop a shuttle to take us along the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. NPS is offering (and sometimes requiring in this case) more and more shuttle services to reduce congestion, emissions and animal-jams and we were happy to oblige. Our pass included the cost of this shuttle and the driver stopped to view every animal and pointed out all of the geologic features. The only downside is if you’re pressed for time, you must plan your excursions carefully in order to minimize wait time at each stop. If you only want to bus-it a short jaunt, the first stop at Court of the Patriarchs is worth it:

We completed our second hike at the Emerald Pools and also accomplished another rule to step into a Park Lodge (conveniently located adjacent to each other). As a bit of an architectural geek (well, I am an architect after all), these buildings provide another perspective from carefully sited and designed spaces.

We ended our day with the sun setting on the Watchman and headed back to camp for much rest needed to prepare for a spontaneous back-track to the North Rim of the, wait for it, Grand Canyon.