While touring national parks in Utah, we took the time to check out Zion National Park. Zion National Park has been the most difficult national park for us to access. This hasn’t been due to injury but a combination of popularity and designation.
Getting into Zion National Park
Zion National Park, for all its popularity, does not have parking available to handle all the visitors it sees day-to-day. While we were able to get a parking spot on our second attempt, this was only because we arrived very early in the morning. For those who arrive too late, the park has shuttles to several parking lots in the town of Springdale. However, the parking is not free. The shuttles run constantly during normal park hours, but not late into the evening. This, coupled with the cost, can be limiting to one’s stay.
When it comes to exploring the park, 89% of the park is designated as wilderness. This requires a backcountry permit to explore. Consequently, the areas designated for the “general public” are often crowded with visitors. This severely reduces one’s opportunity to commune with nature. Since we arrived as early as we did, we got a little bit of solitude on the trails, but as the sun rose, so did the population.
Things to do at Zion National Park
While we visited Zion National Park, The Girl got to have an important 1st experience: a trail ride! Zion, like many parks, has contractors that are allowed to take tourists on horse rides through areas of the park. Considering our lifestyle, we put a lot more emphasis on experiences instead of stuff when it comes to gifts. So while The Girl’s birthday wasn’t for a few months, she got to celebrate early!
This trail ride took Mom and The Girl through parts of Zion most don’t get to see. They marveled at the Court of the Patriarchs, grapes growing wild, and overall enjoyed the hour-long ride through one of our nation’s most beautiful locations.
In addition to this, Zion National Park has a typical mix of trails for all skill levels, including one that requires walking down the middle of a rushing river! We weren’t able to take that one, however, due to it being closed. (And we lacked appropriate gear.)
We walked the rest of the trail that led up to this point via the Riverside Walk. While it was on the longer side, it was probably the easiest hike we did. As a result, it was quite popular and therefore crowded. From this trail, we were able to look up at hikers attempting Angel’s Landing and be grateful we weren’t up there. (If you want to see it, check out Rock the Park’s episode on Zion.)
We hiked Kayenta Trail to the Lower and Middle Emerald Pools, but skipped the upper. This was an amazing hike and our most difficult hike at Zion. If you keep going past the lower pools, the trail is supposed to loop around but the bridge was closed when we were there. However, because of the closure, few people used that trail and we saw a lot of wildlife!
Zion National Park Tunnel
One feature of Zion National Park is the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel. The road to, through, and beyond the tunnel is not suitable for large vehicles. I can’t even imagine trying to drive our bus through all those twists and turns! However, the drive was amazing in our little car. Unfortunately, the parking lot next to the tunnel was full when we went through so we were not able to hike the Canyon Overlook Trail.
The visitor center at Zion National Park was more of a visitor complex, with dozens of informational stands in the courtyards, describing everything from the history of the area, the geology, and the sustainable architectural practices used to heat and cool the buildings. Near the visitor center, there is another, short trail that leads to an archeology dig site, but it’s not well-signed.
If you’re planning to visit Zion National Park, be sure to get there early and take in the sunrise as it breaks through the canyons!