Zion National Park

After the beauty of Wyoming, we started our return, back to San Francisco. After Idaho Falls, our final stop of the day was Springdale. We stayed in the Bumbleberry Inn, which was located closed to the entrance of the Zion National Park. Right in front of the hotel, you had a bus stop for the shuttle bus that would take you in a few minutes to the entrance of the park. The hotel itself was really nice. Breakfast was included in the nearby restaurant and was really good – the gratuity was not included in the coupon! So don’t forget to tip you waiter/ waitress :-).

Right before we entered the park, we stopped by the visitor center in Springdale. We bought two refillable bottles with fresh water and were on our way. We almost bought two walking sticks as well… but in the end I’m glad we didn’t because (very important information!) you can rent hiking material right before the entrance of the park! Shoes, walking sticks and so on: one address > the entrance of the park.

I don’t know what to think about the Zion National Park. The parts I saw, some were beautiful, others I found rather strange… and it was so hot! Extremely hot! We stayed for two nights in our hotel, so we had a day and a half to hike in the park. When you get inside the park, there’s a shuttle bus that takes you around the park as well. Cars are only allowed inside a small part of the park. But the shuttle service is really good! According to the time you arrive, there is a long waiting line to get on the shuttle bus though. But there are a few buses that are driving people around, so you don’t have to wait that long to hop on one of them. Depending on the hike you want to do… it’s worth waiting for a seat on the shuttle :-).

On our first (half) day we decided to do two easy hikes and maybe one moderate hike – if we had the time. We started with the hike that was the furthest away: the Wheeping Rock Trail. This is a really short hike, but rather steep.

After that we did the Emerald Pools Trail. I only reached the Lower Emerald Pool. After that I didn’t feel like walking any further. It was way too hot for me and I just wanted to return to get me a cool drink :-). The boyfriend went to the Middle Emerald Pool. I don’t recall if he ever got to the Upper Emerald Pool though.

The next day we wanted to hike Riverside Walk & The Narrows. But the weather was not our best friend. The Riverside Walk was an easy hike. It’s a one-way hike and you end up at the start of the Narrows. But when we arrived at the park and were waiting for our shuttle bus, a ranger came to tell that there was a possibility of flash floods today and they didn’t recommend hiking The Narrows. Say what? We decided to start with the Riverside Walk (there was no danger there) and see at the end what we would do. Before starting the Narrows trail, you come across a board which states how dangerous it is ‘today’ to hike The Narrows. It goes from yellow (“flash flood is not expected”) to red (“flash flood is expected”). With us the arrows was leaning in the orange part (“flash flood is possible”). We decided that “if there was no green color, it would always be dangerous to hike in The Narrows” and we wanted to hike a small part of it. Water shoes and walking sticks are recommended, but we did it without the sticks. The water was so clean when we were there – which made the decision much easier :-). I think we only hiked to the second bound, right before the water went from “ankle-high” to “hips-high” ;-).

We weren’t planning on doing another hike in Zion, besides The Narrows this day… so we had to make a quick adjustment and decided to hike The Watchman Trail. Around noon. The hottest moment of the day. I’m a bit ashamed to admit that we didn’t finish this hike neither, because there wasn’t a lot of shade, and we were climbing up – without knowing where it would end. And we gave up.

Because of the heath, and the fact that we couldn’t completely hike The Narrows (or at least more than a mile) and actually almost never completet a hike… I’m not overwhelmed with joy that we visited Zion National Park. But it is a beautiful park, completely different (again) from all the others we’d seen so far). Maybe some next time.