Zion National Park – Our Two Day Adventure

Zion Canyon, The Narrows, Riverside Walk, Weeping Rock, Emerald Pools, Big Bend, Pa’rus Trail, South Entrance, Cable Mountain Lodge, Zion Canyon Shuttle, Swimming, Hiking.  We saw all that but two days at Zion National Park wasn’t nearly enough to see everything! Phenomenal! If you have not been…GO! Zion National Park is currently duking it out for the top spot on our National Park list!

We visited Zion National Park (in Utah) in July of 2019.  On the same trip where we went to Bryce Canyon National Park, we also went to Zion.  They are pretty close together out in the middle of nowhere so most people do them together.  They even cut the tunnel through a mountain in Zion to make the trip between the two parks easier.  I don’t know what everybody was talking about how Zion is so beautiful?!?!  All the views were being blocked by a bunch of big rocks!?!?  Ha!  The scale of Zion is hard to explain.  There are so many different formations and the size of them makes a human feel pretty tiny.  We only had two days on this trip which was only enough time to skim the surface.  I told Emily I could spend days/weeks (maybe months) there hiking and biking.  We were not able to even make it to all the stops that the shuttle bus has and didn’t get to do several of the hikes that I was very interested in doing. We will go back when we can stay for a long time.  It currently sits at #2 on my favorite National Park list.  Here is a video about our trip there.

We went on an epic hike as well.  It currently sits at #2 most epic ground pound of my life.  The Narrows @ Zion National Park, Utah – 7/26/2019 – 6 miles, 335 feet elevation gain.  We only had two days on our visit to Zion National Park and made sure to get The Narrows hike in.  We went during the monsoon season which is not the best time to go hiking in the Narrows due to the pop-up showers and the risk of flash flooding.  The hike was closed down a month before our trip due to the water level being too high.  There were numerous warnings about what to do if conditions began to appear that a flash flood was imminent.  It was Emily and me with Max, Cameron, and Miles (we lost Jayne and Georgia as soon as we got off the path and into the water).  We started the 6-mile hike scared out of our minds of imminent death from flash floods (and not without good reason).  Regardless, we made the hike back to the intersection of two major canyons.  The majority of the hike you are in the water.  We rented water boots and walking sticks and both were lifesavers and worth every penny.  All that death stuff aside, the hike was incredible and the slot canyons that you are hiking in are phenomenal.  We will likely do this hike again when we go back to Zion to do other things we didn’t have time to do this time.  We’ll hopefully go at a time when the whole thing is a bit safer.  I just kept saying that at least if we all died someone could say “well at least they died doing what they loved” which instantly makes everything better!  This could easily be the number one hike on this list except that I almost gave myself a panic attack for the first 3 miles of it.  This cut down on the enjoyment!  Ha!  Click HERE for a post and video about this hike.

We also did a few other hikes that you might find interesting.  These videos cover them in greater detail.

Lower Emerald Pool Trail

Pa’Rus Trail

We also drove Highway 9, the Mount Caramel Highway.

Our goal is to visit all the National Parks.  We will keep track of our journey here.  You can see we liked Zion a lot by where it ranks on the overall list so far.

https://deanorolls.com/travel/deanos-favorite-national-parks-and-monuments/

July 2019