Getting out there was a bit of a stress. But we go there! We drove through Vegas to Zion, which was super fun. Couple hours drive and we stopped at Bruce Canyon. Which was INCREDIBLE to start with. I definitely suggest starting with this park (since it's kind of childs play in comparison...!). I hadn't really spent any time in parts of the country with that landscape, so it was pretty fun to see on a beautiful day.
We went to all three lookouts - Bryce, Inspiration and Sunset. But honestly they all started to look the same, so we wouldn't have needed to go to all 3.
Driving into Zion we took Route 9, which I highly recommend! It's an awesome introduction into the vast beauty of the park. You're just driving through swerving roads of beautiful rock formations. There's also a really long rock tunnel which is always a plus.
And then. The first thing. Canyon Overlook. Eeeeek! My mom had been to Zion before, so I feel like she took us on the perfect tour in the perfect order. Everything just kept getting cooler and cooler! This is a pretty easy 1 mile hike to the overlook. But it's a first awesome look. You feel like you're in Jurassic park. We spent some time basically in awe. Sis and I couldn't stop talking about how gorgeous it was and how we couldn't believe it. It was a pretty awesome day. To note, the parking for this hike is a little obscure. You have to park a little bit before the entrance, I think there was a few spots on the side of the road, and the you have to walk alongside the rode to get to the hike entrance.
We stayed in the town of Springfield which is right next door
to the park, at the Zion Pioneer Lodge. It seemed like they were doing
renovations on it wasn’t super fancy or anything. Don’t go in the hot tub
though, we tired and left. When we were driving towards Springfield after our
hike, I started getting pretty sick. Even though you’re not super high in Zion,
I think it was a combination of altitude sickness and looking at the iPad in
the car for navigation. When we got to our room I just laid low in the hotel,
but after an hour or two I was good to go! And so happy to have that nausea
over with. I texted my ma and sis right away and met them at the restaurant. J
and I ate our way through plates of buttered noodles and it was heaven! Carb
loadin amiright??? The town isn’t anything spectacular. There’s not much for
restaurants. Each morning we went to the free hotel breakfast and packed some
PB, fruit and bread for our breakfast and the rest of the day. We packed
lunches for our hikes. After a couple hikes we got yummy meals at the Zion
lodge which is inside the park, and one of the stops on the bus. The other
nights we went to a pizza and pasta place by our hotel called. To note, it’s
hard to get booze in Utah…we called it an early night so we were ready to hike
in the morning!
The coolest part about Zion is how easily accessible everything
is. It depends on what season it is, but when it’s peak season there’s a bus
that takes you right to the park from town, and buses that take you all through
the park and stop at each hike/landmark. SO COOL. You really feel like you’re
in Jurassic park then. During this season, no other cars are allowed in the
park, so it’s really special that the roads are free of cars when you’re up on
high peaks. I would be curious what it’s like in non-peak season though when
you can drive through the park. I’m sure that’s pretty special too! However!
One important thing to know, is that the bus from Springfield doesn’t start as
early as the bus inside the park. And there’s plenty of parking inside the
park, so we actually drove, parked, and then took the park bus to our hikes.
Start as early as possible for big hikes! And people start lining up for the
buses, so even get there a little sooner. We went right away for Angels Landing
and Observation point.
Day 2:
I don’t remember exactly when we woke up or anything, but I think
we got to the park about 15 minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave. We
could have gotten there earlier since there was probably already 40-50 ppl in
line. But we did all make it on the first round of buses I remember which was
nice. But we packed like sardines in the cars that’s for sure! We got off at
the first stop for Angels, as did most others. It was a cloudy day which made
it extra beautiful I thought. The hike up is a steady incline, but such a nice
and maintained trail. Just beautiful too! You can’t really see Angel’s landing
when you’re making your way up, since you’re kind of in the mountains at that
point. What I didn’t realize about the hike, is it’s a pretty long ways up to
the top, and then the last hourish is the really scary part. There’s eventually
the point where you can see almost the whole path you will take, and then an
entrance sign that warns you that it’s dangerous and then you can go a little
further and take photos with the path in the background, and then there’s a big
landing where the people decide if they’re going the rest of the way or not.
And there’s people crying because they can’t do it. And there’s people
anxiously waiting for their party to return cause they couldn’t do it. But then
you pass the people that say it’s so cool have fun, cause they already
finished. And you pass the 4 year old running around on the rocks (woof). And
then, you start! It’s hard to sum up the experience. I would rate our fear
level as 3 – my mom was good to go, 2 – I was nervous but not terrified, and 3
– J was pretty terrified but still got after it. You can tell in most of the
photos we took by her smile…it’s just half there ha! Fun fact my mom was proposed
to at Angels Landing! So cool! It’s hard to describe the scale of scariness to
people. I think I would do it again, but it was still really scary. Honestly,
I’m not sure if I would have been able to if I didn’t know what to expect from
my mom. It’s pretty darn intimidating. It helps to google some videos of it on
youtube so you know a little bit what to expect. But the main point is – it’s
so worth it! There’s chains along pretty much the entire route. The scariest
part is passing people, but for the most part everyone else is scared too so
everyone is very considerate to make sure everyone has a safe place to hold on
when the passing occurs. You hike to the top, turn around and hike back the
same way, so there is quite a bit of passing. There is quite a bit of space at
the very top which is super nice. We sat and ate lunch and took photos. One of
my favorite moments of life, hands down.
After we hiked back down, we wanted more! We did some of the hikes
that were close by like Emerald Pools and the narrows (the actual narrows were
closed due to weather, but the river walk along the way was open). To be
honest, they were a little boring after the hike we had just had, but we wore
our little legs right out! We had lunch at the Zion Lodge which was really
good, especially after so much hiking. It’s one of the stops on the bus.
Day 3: Observation Point! This was one of the harder hikes, I think
5-8 hours? Honestly I don’t remember. But it was SO fun. Since you hike so high
and around different mountains, you see tons of different landscapes and types
of plants and rock. You walk around each corner and you’re like HOLY CRAP that’s
beautiful, and you walk around again and think WHAT HOW IS IT MORE BEAUTIFUL!? And
that just happens the whole time. Until you’re at the top and it’s even MORE
beautiful. Since we did this one after Angels landing, it was pretty special to
be able to see Angels landing when we looked down! So neat! We ate lunch at the
top of this hike also which rocked. After that hike, we again ate at Zion
lodge.
Each of the nights I think we just chilled and walked around a
bit, had some average dinners. I think we did Mexican one night, but two nights
went to the Pizza and Pasta place.
Overall, one of the best trips EVER!!! And 3 days was such a good
length! Of course it would be cool to do the Narrows since everyone raves about
it, but I think you could still do that in one of the three days.
Hoping you get to go some day!
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