Zion National Park - Utah

We had heard how bad the crowds were in Zion National Park this time of year, so we got up early and made the trek over to the park.  From where we were staying, it was about a13 mile drive to the park entrance, but it took a little over an hour to get there.  Most of the road getting to the visitor center parking lot was very scenic.  We drove through mountains and a couple of tunnels.  It was a beautiful drive.

Below are some of the gorgeous scenery we saw from the car on the way to visitor center.

At every turn the landscape seemed to change.  It was very surreal.

Even the road has a red cast to it.

One of tunnels you drive through is over a mile long.  It was very dark inside expect the areas that had large open "windows" to let light in.  These windows were a necessity when the tunnel was being built to let enough light in for the workers to see what they were doing.  It was pretty spooky being in this dark tunnel for that lenght of time.  We were glad to be out .

The other tunnel was not as long.

Made it!

We got to the visitor center and found out where and how to ride the park shuttle to the 9 different viewing areas.  

In the picture below we were up near the front of the line to board the shuttle bus.  We had waited in line (the line ran zig zag like at Disney :)  for about 15 or 20 minutes.  The shuttles had just got started at 8:00 am, so they weren't running as quickly as they did the rest of the day.  We never had to wait more than a few minutes for one the rest of the day at any of the stops.

The two shuttles were connected, however, the front bus actually pulled the connected one.  The shuttle in the rear is not motorized.....just hooked up the front bus.  We boarded and off we went.....

Almost every other person had hiking gear or at least a walking stick.  Most "points of interest"  in the park included some hiking.  Only four of the hikes were considered "easy"......  We went on the first one that the brochure said was a "must see".     

So, we headed up toward the trailhead......this sign showed the waterfall and pool and gave some history pertaining to it.

  

We had to cross the river via this foot bridge first.

Well, let me tell you, the path to Lower Emerald Pool was only about a half mile hike on a wide flat path, but there was definetly an elevation change.  I had no walking stick and it was starting to get warm....had to sit on the rock a minute!

When we reached the top (for the lower falls), this was what we saw.  It was supposed to be a waterfall with a beautiful emerald pool where the water was falling.  It fell a little short in our expectations.  The water was only dribbling down from the waterfall and the pool was definetly not emerald.  I'm sure during certain times of the year....or depending on the rain, etc. it must be spectacular.   

The grey looking streaks in the rocks below was not water as I first thought.  You cannot see the water flow from these pictures.  The pool is at the bottom of picture. 

Our next stop on the shuttle was the Zion Lodge.  There were restrooms, a gift shop and small restaurant located here.  Since we left the motorhome so early, we took a few minutes to get a quick breakfast sandwich.  The red rock background of the lodge was stunning.

At our next stop, we got off the shuttle and walked  over to the river.  This stop was also for one of the hiking trailheads (actually every stop was), but we decided to walk along the river and just enjoy  the scenery.

The river ran between the rock formations and out of sight .

We spotted these deer across the river.

So pretty!

You can see where the river makes the bend.

Below are pictures of the landscape that we saw during our visit to the park.

In every direction that we looked, we were in awe of our surroundings.   While this park is beautiful, it seemed to us that is was geared mostly for hikers.  Most of the points of interest seemed to be on long or steep hikes that took sometimes several hours.  Not sure how you would be able to see it all in a day with all that hinking involved.   

When we got back to the visitor center, we were astounded at the length of the line waiting for the shuttle buses.  The roof of the building in the background in this picture is the building where we  stood that morning waiting for the shuttle.  This line was at least 150 yards long or more from the building. Once at the building then you had to weave back and forth in those "disney" type roped off lines".   I'm sure the people in the back of this line had at least a two hour wait for the shuttle.  It paid to get there early!  We were already done and they were going to be standing here for a while.  Our shuttle driver said they expected a record year of around 5 million visitors.  Last year they had over 4 million visitors.

This was a small RV park near the Zion National Park entrance that we used as our base for both the Zion park and the Bryce Canyon park.

This was the view from our RV site.  When the afternoon light hit the rock mountains, it was so  beautiful.