Hello, welcome to our blog. If you’re new here, we are a husband and wife team that full times it in our Keystone Cougar 5th wheel. We travel the country and love sharing our travels with you. Last we left off with, we took our oldest daughter to Las Vegas. We then made our way to Zion National Park. This is one of my favorite National Parks to visit. Last time I was there, I did the park alone, but this time I got to show Autumn the park.
If you have the time, you definitely need to do the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel drive, especially if you’re planning to travel to Bryce Canyon. You can take your RV because rangers will stop traffic one way for you to drive down the middle of the tunnel. There is a $15 fee for large vehicles. It was just announced that if your large profile vehicle is more that 11ft. 4 inches tall, 7ft.10 in. wide or 35ft. 9 in. long than you will have to find an alternate route. This change will begin next year. It’s a 1.1 mile drive through the mountain and it is very cool!
There are so many hikes and trails to do. My first time there, I was alone and didn’t want to get in a long line for the shuttle. In my brilliance, I thought I would pick up the shuttle at station 2 after walking the Pa’rus Self-Guided Walk. It is a 1.25mile paved trail that travels along the Virgin River. It was a beautiful trail, and I highly recommend it. When I got to the shuttle, I learned that it only goes back down to the visitor center, so back to the visitor center I went. I got in line and took the shuttle to the last stop of Temple of Sinawava.
When you get off the shuttle at Temple of Sinawava, you take a few steps, and your view is breathtaking. You feel like you are at the end of the canyon; when you look up you’re surrounded by tall sandstone walls.
From here you do a 1 mile easy, paved Riverside Walk. My daughter and I actually hiked part of the Narrows and it was so much fun. If you plan to hike the Narrows, here are my tips: Start early and bring food and water to enjoy the beautiful views. Bring the proper shoes of hiking shoes and have a walking stick or two to help navigate through the rocky waters. I would also use a dry bag to keep your phone, wallet, and lunch dry. Plan to spend the day in the Narrows, it can take 1-8 hours depending how much time you want to spend in the water.
From the Narrows, I took the shuttle to Weeping Rock, which continuously has water seeping through the sandstone. It is a short walk to see the weeping rock and it was actually kind of cool to see.
From Weeping Rock, I caught the shuttle to Grotto Trail and walked to Zion Lodge where I sat, enjoyed the views, people watched, and enjoyed my lunch that I packed with me. You can buy lunch here if you so desire and it’s the only place to buy food in the park. The large grass area had wild turkeys lurking about looking for some handouts. You defintely have to go inside and check out the lodge. You also want to get your merchandise inside the gift shop here.
When Autumn was with me, we hiked the Lower Emerald Pool trail. The trail is rough and can be grueling in places, but not too bad if you’re in pretty good shape.
We then split up on the way back. Autumn went down, and I went up. It wasn’t an easy hike but so very worth it.
The hike up to the upper pools but tough. I had to stop many times to rest because it was so difficult and hot.
So, you can’t go into the water, which would have been nice to cool off in, but the hike was so worth it.
When I got back to Autumn, I felt bad because it took me an extra hour and a half to get back to her.
We hope you enjoyed our trip to Zion National Park. Please hit the subscribe button to get notified when a new blog is posted. Stayed tuned for more when we head to Monument Valley.
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