Thursday, October 27, 2011

Utah National Parks Tour - Zion National Park

We have to say that Zion National Park is our favorite National Park so far. It is very hard to compare all these beautiful parks that we have seen but the ruggedness and the red sandstone cliffs and then a lighter sandstone formation behind a red one really makes Zion an amazing place to visit. Since we left from Kanab the east entrance into the park on Highway 9 Scenic Byway was the best option. Here is a scenery shot as you approach from the east.


















Since we are a dually truck we had to pay the escort fee through the tunnel so we got the single lane treatment as if we were towing our RV. Bob took this photo of the tunnel while we were waiting.


















It is a 1.1 mile tunnel completed in 1930 with only a couple of cutouts to get natural light. Here is a photo of one of those cutouts after we have cleared the tunnel and then spent some time on some winding roads.


















We toured the Visitors Center and then boarded the free park shuttle to scenic stops into Zion Canyon. The Weeping Rock stop was neat where you can take a trail up to where the snow on the top of the mountains melts and is absorbed into the rock and then weeps out lower in canyon walls. You can actually get underneath where the weeping occurs. Here are a couple of photos from the Weeping Rock area. First is looking at the weeping rocks.



















The next one is Bob underneath the overhang and looking through the water.

 















We saw some climbers going up steep walls at The Bend stop.


















At the end of the line is the Temple of Sinawava where you can walk on the Riverside Walk trail. Ths trail is real neat because you walk near the Virgin River (which shaped Zion Canyon) into an ever narrowing canyon. Here are a couple of photos from the Riverside Walk.















 



























Photos from Zion Canyon have been uploaded to the Kanab Utah set on Flickr.

Utah has been amazing and our favorite State visited so far while full-timing and Zion is our favorite National Park.

Till next time,

Bob and Jo

2 comments:

  1. Zion is so gorgeous. Did you take the ranger tour? It's a tour that stops at different spots than the shuttle and the ranger gives you lots of info about the canyon.

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