The Road Less Traveled


Last night we came up with a plan of how we were going to spend our day in Zion National Park.  We would get up early, drive the hour to the park, and arrive early.  We had decided that we would take the shuttle within the Park as the area that has lots of hiking is only accessible by shuttle.  The information said that it leaves regularly from the Visitor Center.  We had ourselves at the Visitor Center by 8:15. Much to our amazement, the parking lot was almost full, but that was not the real problem.  The lineup to get on the shuttle had to be between 150 and 200 metres long snaking through the parking lot.  They have a lot of shuttles, but we could only imagine how many were going to have to come along before we would be able to get on one.  We were not that interested in being treated like cattle being shipped to Market.  The trail-heads where the shuttles stop would also be overrun with people, not my idea of a nice hike.  Plan ‘B’ had to be considered.

Plan ‘B’ …Take the Road Less Traveled.  We decided to head up through the park on the main road stopping at every pullover and see if we could hike.  The crowds at the Visitor Center may have been a blessing in disguise.  At the first pullover we found a gem of a trail.  We hiked up alongside a stream.  To keep hiking we had to cross it several times by stepping from rock to rock.  45 minutes up the canyon we caught a glimpse of a waterfall.  The trouble was some rock climbing was necessary to get a good view.  Some of our climbing was a little unconventional as can be seen by one of our pictures.  A waterfall was one of the things we had intended to hike to by taking the shuttle.  So, this trail ticked that off the list.

A second thing we had intended to go see was ‘weeping rocks’.  Weeping rock is water running out of the side of rocks.  This hike produced more than its share of this.  A second thing was taken off our list.

One of the most famous things to do at Zion is hike ‘The Narrows’, a slot canyon.  A slot canyon is a narrow passage carved by a stream. On both sides the rocks go straight up.  At one of the other pullovers we found a dry creek bed to hike up.  Sure enough, we came upon our own ‘slot canyon’.  Thousands and thousands of people in Zion today and we had this one all to ourselves…what a treat!

Our last adventure was to drive 20 miles up a county road that went in and out of the park.  It took us to elevations of over 8500 feet.  The Visitor Center sits at about 3300 feet.  One of the road’s switchbacks was as tight as we have ever seen rivaling one we experienced in Australia and of course ‘The Hill’ in British Columbia.

The Rock formations in Zion are different than anywhere else we have been.  The rocks are smooth in places but have amazing patterns etched into them…fascinating!  But and it is a huge but, it is overrun with people.  The crowds at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon paled in comparison to what we witnessed today.  I will not even get into a discussion about the ‘commercial sprawl’ just outside of the park.  It is a continuous 20 mile mess.

Today had another problem, it was blazing hot. The temperature hit 40 degrees Celsius at 5:00 pm.  It is to still be 32 at 9:00 tonight.  That ought to be comfortable to sleep!  It is time to move northward.

Distance Traveled = 227 km.  Wildlife Sightings = American Dipper, Rock Wren, Black-headed Grosbeak, Say’s Phoebe, Orange-crowned Warbler, Turkey Vulture, Violet-green Swallow, American Robin.

P.S.  Happy Canada Day!!!


Unconventional Rock Climbing


Interesting Rock Formation


Weeping Rocks


Waterfall after a lot of 'effort'

Road Less Traveled


Our very own slot canyon


Much of Zion looks like this

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