Zion National Park

Zion National Park is located in southwest Utah and is known for the Canyon’s steep red cliffs. It has beautiful trails along the Virgin River, emerald pools and waterfalls. We decided this was the perfect park to end our first year of full-time Rving, and it did not disappoint. We arrived around noon the first day and relaxed around the pool at Zion Campground and RV Park, about 1/2 a mile from the national park visitors center. In the early evening when it was cooler, we rode the shuttle to the “Temple of Sinawava” stop and hiked the Riverside walk. It was a beautiful and peaceful hike. The next morning we got up early and took the shuttle to the “Big Bend” stop to view Angels Landing and the Great White Throne. We stopped at all the shuttle stops and completed several hikes. We especially liked hiking to “Weeping Rock” and the Lower Emerald Pool trail. Our last stop for the morning was the Human History Museum where we watched a very interesting film about the park. We ended the day with a drive on the Zion – Mt. Carmel Highway. What a treat! The view from the road was spectacular and really gave perspective on how huge the rock formations in this canyon are. We hiked the Canyon Overlook Trail for more gorgeous views. The best part of the drive was that we finally saw multiple Big Horn Sheep. We have been looking for them since October when we were in Wyoming and kept looking in Colorado and New Mexico with no luck. They really are stunning creatures! The rest of the trip we moved at a slower pace to really savor the park. We really enjoyed a 2 hour ranger led tour through the park and getting to see some of the lesser known areas of the park, like the Menonite Falls. One of favorite activities was early morning bike rides on the main road through park. After biking up to Big Bend, Mike was able to see his first California Condor, which was quite a thrill. We ended our trip with a few more hikes, runs on the Pa’rus trail, more scenic drives and even saw our first hoodoos. Zion is an amazing National Park and it is hard to leave. Fortunately, our next stop is another National Park on our bucket list, the Grand Canyon.