Winter is coming to an end and it’s time to start working our way home. Our first stop on the way is a visit to Zion National Park. Zion is one of the most visited national parks in the US – for a reason. Mormon pioneer Isaac Behunin declared the canyon “a temple of God”. Looking up at the massive cream, pink and red sandstone cliffs, it’s hard to disagree. Follow the paths where ancient native people and pioneers walked.
The beginning of Zion was started a bazillion years ago by the waters of the Virgin River. Over the years, the river chiseled its way down through the sandstone creating this awe-inspiring scenery. Zion national Park is very accessible. A road winds up from the mouth of the canyon, following the Virgin River. The Utah Parks company started developing visitor services in the 1920’s, including the rustic Zion Lodge. The 1930’s brought another road and tunnel opening of the east side of the park. There are lots of opportunities to explore the park, whether driving or hiking. We weren’t disappointed.
Home Base
Up to this point, we have had no difficulty finding a boondocking spot where we’ve been. But with all the outdoor recreation in the area and proximity to Zion National Park, we struggled a bit to find a good home base for this part of our journey. There are plenty of spots if you have a small trailer or a tent but sites are limited with a bigger rig.
We finally found a spot on La Verkin Overlook Road with a nice view of some mesas. Not a bad view from our back yard. And we were only about 20 minutes from Zion. For the camping averse, the Zion Lodge is inside the park, if money is no object and you plan your trip a couple years in advance. Otherwise, there are some equally expensive options at the park entrance in Springdale. Other cheaper options exist in surrounding towns, such as Hurricane.
Watchmen Peak
My fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants approach to this trip may create a problem for our visit to Zion National Park, seeing how this is a very popular place. For our first day here, my plan was to hit the visitor center, get some information on some good hikes, grab a ride on the shuttle up into the canyon and hike. Silly me. Shuttle tickets are released twice a month and sell out quickly. Each night at 5pm, more tickets are released online but you better be signed in to your account and ready because these sell out in a matter of minutes. Plus, limits on the number of people who can ride the shuttle due to Covid restrictions created a real supply and demand problem. We were directed by the ranger to a couple hikes starting at the visitor center, one of which is the Watchman Trail.
The Watchman Trail is about 3 miles with some moderate climbs and drop-offs. At the top is a scenic viewpoint of the Temples and Towers. It was a interesting trail with some fantastic views. Apparently, there were a lot of unprepared people because the Watchman Trail was highly trafficked. When I say highly trafficked, I mean there were times it was like making a left turn into rush hour traffic in Times Square busy. If we stopped for a rest or photos, we had to wait a bit before there was a break in traffic to resume our trek. It did however, introduce us to several nice people who were also waiting to merge back onto the trail. We thought the rest of Zion was going to be just as amazing. Not so. Once we got into the canyon, we discovered that Zion has much more to offer.
Towers of the Virgin: The Sundial (left), The Witch Head, Broken Tooth, Rotten Tooth, Altar of Sacrifice
Zion/Mt. Carmel Highway
The Zion/Mt. Carmel Highway opened in 1930, The 13 mile road was a major engineering accomplishment for the time. It opened up the park’s east side and allowed people to make the ‘golden circle’ – Zion to Bryce to the Grand Canyon north rim. Even if you’re just in the area on your way to somewhere else, take a detour to make this drive. The views are breathtaking and well worth the park entrance fee. All I heard from the passenger seat was ‘Wow!’, ‘Wow, look at that!’, ‘Oh, wow!’. I also heard ‘Stop! I want to get some pictures!’ It took us the better part of the day to go up and back.
The Checkerboard Mesa 
We ran into a big horn sheep family on the drive. What an awesome experience!
“Hey, kids! Watch me stop all this traffic!” 
“Who’s that tramping up and down my road?” 
The Emerald Pools
Several years ago, they stopped letting cars drive into the upper canyon due to the amount of traffic that clogged the road and went to a shuttle system. To get to the most popular hikes in Zion, such as the Narrows and Angels Landing, you need to take the shuttle. So I sat at my computer waiting for 5pm on Friday evening, I was lucky enough to score some tickets on the 11 o’clock shuttle for Saturday morning. Later than we wanted to start but beggars (or those who don’t plan ahead) can’t be choosy.
Emerald Pools Trail is also a very popular hike in Zion. The hike is a series of short trails to three pools created by a small stream that rolls down from the cliffs forming an oasis in the middle of the desert. You can start at either the Grotto or the Zion Lodge, depending on which way you want to go. We started at the Grotto and early on kept leap-frogging an interesting guy on the trail. He was in his early 80’s and we had some good conversation. We took a photo to keep for inspiration.
Lower Pool
If you’re looking for a short, easy hike, this one’s for you. The trail to the Lower pool breaks off from the trail to the Middle Pool. The trail heads down a set of stairs and makes its way along a tall alcove under two tall waterfalls and the pools below. If you’re expecting Yosemite-volume waterfalls, you will be disappointed unless you are visiting during the spring runoff or during a rainstorm. However, they did provide a cool mist where we hung out for a bit. From here, you can walk about a half mile back to the Zion Lodge among the classic towering rock formations and lush vegetation. Or you can head back up the stairs to continue on to the Middle Pool.
Middle Pool
We climbed back up the stairs and continued on to the Middle Pool. This section climbs higher up the slope, exploring yet another level of the exquisite Zion waterway, bringing you to the top of the cliff that you just walked under. The Middle Pool are the streams that form the waterfalls at the Lower Pool. The water rolls across the rock trail and could get slick, I suppose, if the water were cascading down during spring runoff or after a rainstorm. This section of the hike is quite beautiful.
Upper Pool
The trail to the Upper Pool is quite a bit steeper and harder to reach than the other two pools. The final stretch is a hot and sandy quarter mile, but it is well worth the effort to get to the final pool at the base of the 300-foot cliffs above. I imagine the waterfalls here are fast and powerful during the runoff months and add to the breathtaking backdrop of Zion Canyon. Most of the time however, you can see a faint waterfall coming from the mouth of Heaps Canyon far above. The upper pool area is a great area to find a shaded boulder to relax after the hard climb and have lunch or a snack.
From here, you can either retrace your steps back to the Grotto or finish the loop to Zion Lodge. We finished the loop. We could’ve hiked the flat Grotto Trail back to our original starting point. But why do that if there is a shuttle available? (Note the irony of not wanting to walk a short distance after a hike). Being springtime, there were several places along the hike where flowers were blooming.
All along the trail are great views of the canyon, rock formations above, and the Virgin River below.
Back on the Shuttle
From the Zion Lodge, we caught another shuttle and ventured further up the canyon. Our next stop was the Temple of Sinawava at the northernmost area of the park. This is where hikers access the Riverside Trail and the Narrows. Here, the canyon gets deep instead of wider. Up until this point, we’ve been seeing people in the park wearing waders and funny shoes. The Narrows is their destination.
They follow the paved Riverside Trail to the end and then spend the rest of the time wading, walking, and sometimes swimming up the Virgin River. With walls a thousand feet tall and the river sometimes just twenty to thirty feet wide, this is the narrowest section of Zion Canyon. That sounds like fun for our next trip to Zion National Park. We then rode the shuttle to the Big Bend stop to see some more outstanding rock formations and get some photos.
The Great White Throne
Kolob Terrace Road
Our visit to Zion National Park continued with a drive up nearby Kolob Terrace Road for a different perspective of the park, per the park ranger’s advice. No need for shuttle tickets or park entrance fee here. The Kolob Terrace area of Zion is fairly secluded, less trafficked. Things are much greener and definitely more lush here. The road has some exceptional sites with several turn outs to stop and take pictures or just admire the scenery. Make sure you look in all directions so as not to miss anything.
Northgate Peaks Trail
There are a few trailheads along this road. This scenery is quite different from what you’d be looking at while hiking the big-name trails in the more well-known parts of the Park. We stopped for an easy hike along the Northgate Peaks Trail. This is a beautiful, easy trail through Ponderosa pines, open fields and surrounded by some picturesque white sandstone formations. At the end, the trail opens up to incredible vistas of Northgate Peaks and the Great West Canyon. This is a great spot to stop for a bite and stare at the scenery.
Some might consider the views at the end of Northgate Peaks Trail to be somewhat underwhelming compared sights in the main part of the park. But the vistas are just different and a wonderful variation to the more famous views. The trail heads down through the rocks and up to the peaks on the other side. We chose to turn around instead. A couple young kids/mountain goats went down over the edge and up to the next summit in about 20 minutes. Ah, to be young again! The temperatures here are about 10 – 15 degrees cooler than the main part of the park so be prepared.
Kolob Reservoir
After our hike, we continued to the end of Kolob Terrace Road and Kolob Reservoir. It’s much colder up here at over 8,000 feet and there’s still quite a bit of snow on the ground. The reservoir was still mostly iced over. We tried to drive the dirt road around it. We got most of the way but then the road was blocked by a snow drift and ended up having to go all the way back around. There are a number of ranches and what looks like summer homes up here. It’s probably a great place in the summer.
The End of Our Visit to Zion National Park
Our visit to Zion National Park is over. Our plan, if you can call it that, was to visit Bryce after Zion. Looking at the forecast, the weather prognosticators predicted night time temperatures at Bryce to be in the low 20’s. We came out here to get away from that. Plus, I didn’t want to risk freezing and bursting our water pipes in the trailer. So after checking the weather forecast for Arches and Canyonlands, we decided to save Bryce for another, warmer time. Maybe next year. After packing things up, we headed to Moab, near Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. More fun dead ahead!
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