Friday, October 20, 2017
Alan called his Mom for her birthday while I showered. Once ready, we headed out of Vegas. We were going to miss those comfortable beds.
Our route took us by the north end of Zion National Park, the Kolob Canyons area, so we decided to explore that part of the park before heading to our campground.
The colors of the canyon were a deep rusty red intermixed with golds, yellows and tans. We, were awestruck by the beauty of this place. We drove the Kolob Canyon road to the very end, at Kolob Canyons Viewpoint.
We arrived at our campground late in the day, deciding to put off going into Zion until the Saturday. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant.
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Getting up early, we took our time and had a good breakfast before heading into Zion. I guess we should have read up on the park because it was packed with cars and people.
Zion uses a shuttle service to get people around in the park. You can drive up to Canyon Junction and then out along the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway, but you cannot go past Canyon Junction – from there you must take a shuttle. The shuttles have about eight stops, all along trail heads and photographic locations. You can also park in town and take the town bus to the nearby first shuttle.
We drove up the Zion road and then out on Zion-Mount Carmel Highway. We drove through the tunnels (fun) and out to the junction of Hwy. 9 and Hwy. 89 – took a bathroom break and then drove back.
There were so few places that we could really stop for photos – they were mostly backed up with other visitors who were either taking photos or had gone out hiking along one of the trails nearby. It was so very crowded and busy that we went back to camp and settled in for the rest of the day, making the decision to not try and use the shuttles the next day. What were we thinking? It was the weekend and Zion is a popular park.