We were relaxed from Lake Powell, time to get it together and see Zion. I mentioned earlier that we had to take the long route to Zion because there is a tunnel on the East Entrance that was built in the 1930's and we did not know if we were going to fit.
The long way was about an extra hour, on a two-lane highway with not really a lot to see. There were a couple beautiful cliff formations and right at the end a windy road. We came into Zion from West to the main entrance, we got to drive through the town of Springdale which is just steps away from the park. Once in the park, we stopped in the visitor's center (it is kind of our go to thing now) to ask about hikes and what to do to get the most out of the park. We also asked about the tunnel because looking at the map, we were going to want to take the tunnel when we went to Bryce Canyon. We got our "rig" measured and we were small enough to pass through without an escort (really all they do is stop traffic so you can drive down the middle, but you have to pay a fee).
We headed to our campsite (which was just steps away from the visitor's center) and found our spot. Now I do not think I have gone into it that much, but Joe is pretty awesome at backing up considering that we always get the hardest spots (no pull throughs) and I am absolutely no help to him. I do not know what happpens, I lose all vocabulary and am unable to tell him left, right, back, etc. You also cannot really comprehend the skill it takes to back one of these up because they pretty much go opposite of the truck and do not correct fast enough. It is like trying to backup in a mirror upside down. Anyway we got into our spot around 4ish so we decided to take the shuttle (they have 2 free shuttles running through Zion, one to town and one to loop the park) into town and check things out, then we were going to make dinner and chill out since we had the next day and night to see the park.
The town was pretty cool, lots of "new age" shops, which I guess is really normal in the Southwest because of all the Native American influences. They had a bunch of hotels and a few restaurants, we went through the town in about an hour and we could tell we were getting pretty tired (the heat did not help, it was almost 100 degrees). Also I forgot to mention that the time changed, 1 hour ahead now that we are in Utah. When we got dropped off back in Zion, there was a photography exhibit and a market. We checked out the photo exhibit, the guy was incredible. His name is Michael Fatali, check out his website because I cannot explain what his photos looked like: www.fatali.com.
We headed back to our campsite, which was 10 feet away from the Virgin River, and tried to nap. (again it was way too hot for me) We just hung out that night, ate dinner, and took in the awesome nature sounds of the park.
The next morning we woke and had to move campsites, another fun time of backing the trailer up (Joe did awesome). Then we got ready and took the shuttle up Zion Canyon through the main part of the park. We stopped at the last spot, which is at the top of the canyon and took that nature trail to where the Narrows start. Unfortunately the Narrows were closed because the water current was still too fast for people to safely hike up them. But of course Joe had to cross the river and go up them just a little bit to get the picture of what we were missing out on and of course I followed. The water was pretty strong and pretty cold, but not too deep.
After the nature trail to the Narrows we stopped at a couple more shuttle stops to take some pictures of the large cliffs that surround Zion. Coming to Zion after going to the Grand Canyon was neat because you get a hole new perspective. At the Grand Canyon you are on top of the cliffs looking down into the canyon, at Zion you are at the bottom in the canyon looking up at the cliffs, pretty amazing stuff. We decided to hike the Emerald Pools. There are three; lower, middle, and upper. In my head I was thinking that we would just do the lower and middle, but once we got to the trail head of the upper it was not that much further to go all the way. All three of the stops were pretty cool, not that much water though ( I was hoping to go swimming again). We were lucky enough when we started at the trailhead that a hiker coming down told us which path was better because there was a sign showing that you could go left or right to start the trail since it was a loop. He was definitely right, if we would have gone the opposite way it would have been a little harder and way more tiring. Once at the bottom again, we grabbed a bite to eat and then headed over to the museum stop to watch a short film on the park. It was really interesting how it all came together and also showed the tunnel drive out (which made me feel a little better that we would be able to do it)
We got back to the campsite and went to the river to cool down for a bit. Then we had Sunday Funday at our campsite and got ready to head to Bryce Canyon the next day.
We left in morning and took the East Entrance tunnel out of the park. What a scenic drive, a totally different view of the park than what we had already seen. Things were going well, we got through the tunnel, were making great time to Bryce and then we had a little "bump" in the road. We got our first (and last) trailer flat. We had to pull over in not your most ideal spot (especially when there was a pull out another 1/4 mile up). But Joseph was amazing and changed the flat and got us safely back on the road ( I tried to help, but there was really nothing I could do). Check out the photos...
Set us back a little bit to Bryce but not too bad. We decided to stop at the town just north of Bryce to get the tire fixed. Cute little town called Panguitch, we got our tire fixed and had bite to eat. Now headed to Bryce.
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