Zion National Park, Utah

Visited April 13-19, 2021

By Marty

From Page, AZ it is a scenic 141 miles to the Zion River Resort RV park in Virgin, Utah. The RV park is about 20 minutes west of Zion National Park. This being our first foray into Utah (with The Beast that is) you will notice another state added to the "States we have visited so far" map on the right margin.

 

On the way to Zion we stopped in Kanab, UT for a bite and to check out the Visitor Center for the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. While we were there The Beast posed for a photo!

 

 

Did I mention that we were thinking of getting a dog? One that Janell could fit in her purse? Meet Cooper!

Just kidding...   Our Livermore friends and next door neighbors, Marty, Minda, and Cooper, met up with us in Zion. You'll meet M&M in a minute.

Zion River Resort RV Park & Campground was a nice park with TERRIBLE wifi. To make matters worse the Verizon signal was also non-existent. It is rare that both are lousy. C'est la vie!

The "must do" hike in Zion is "The Narrows".  We're still puzzling over how they came up with that name. Zion canyon was carved by the Virgin River. At the northeast end of the park the canyon gets skinnier (narrows maybe?) and you can hike upriver, most of the time in the water. 

We've hiked the narrows before, but it was summertime when you could do it in shorts and a t-shirt when the cool water was refreshing against the summer heat. In mid April the river is running higher and colder (mid 40 degrees) so most people, including us, rent special gear. The package includes neoprene booties, water hiking boots, wader type pants, and a hiking pole. With this gear hiking in thigh deep 45 degree water was fairly comfortable. The trick is to not slip and get wet above your waist. The cloudy water runs swift in many places and it is often impossible to see the rocks that you are navigating over and around. The hiking pole is a real asset in keeping you upright. 

Meet Marty and Minda!  They drove from Livermore with their trailer to explore and enjoy Zion and Bryce Canyon NP's and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument with us.

It isn't a Marty post without a brewery photo...

For our second adventure in Zion NP we hiked the West Rim Trail to Angel's Landing. The Narrows and Angel's Landing hikes are, far and away, the most popular hikes in Zion. Let me clarify: we did not actually hike onto Angel's Landing. I'll explain further below. 

Getting around Zion NP is a challenge. No visitor vehicles are allowed in the core of the park. The NPS has shuttle buses (since 1999) to eliminate traffic congestion and parking issues. However, the shuttle tickets (only $1 for the entire day) must be purchased online in advance. With reduced capacity in the shuttles (thank you COVID) and the high demand (Spring Break and Covid lockdown refugees) it is very difficult to score a shuttle ticket. Our workaround was to bring our bikes to the Visitor Center at dawn's early light and pedal five miles to the Grotto trail head. It was a pretty good warm up for our hike as much of the ride was uphill and into the wind!

 

Angel's landing is the formation in the foreground to the left of center. To get there you hike up the West Rim trail to Scout's Lookout and then across a narrow ridge onto Angel's Landing

 

 

From part way up the West Rim Trail

Looking into Zion Canyon from part way up the West Rim Trail

 

Marty Rossman powers up the 27 switchbacks that are Walter's Wiggles!

Looking down on Walter's Wiggles

Looking up the canyon from Scout's Lookout to the Virgin River below

From Scout's Lookout you branch off to the Angels Landing trail. If you click on the photo for enhanced resolution you'll better see the mob of people and the chains in place to keep people from tumbling into the abyss. 

Outside magazine rated Angel's Landing one of the 20 most dangerous hikes in the world. Since 2004, 13 people have died falling from this "trail". The hike is dangerous of it's own accord, but it is the number of people hiking it at the same time that makes it so dangerous. People are going up and down clinging to the same set of chains. We met a man who told us it took him 1.5 hours to hike back the half mile from Angel's Landing to Scout's Landing (where his wife waited) because of all the people!  Criminy! 

Janell and I did NOT attempt this part of the hike.  Too many people for one, and not a fan of premature death for two. Marty and Minda went up the first section of chains to check things out. They lived to tell us about it.

A flower grows in Zion National Park

Cute photo, but do our feet look huge, or is it just me?

We hiked a bit further up the West Rim Trail to get away from the crowds and get a view of the canyon from higher up. In the center of the photo you are looking at the north face of Angels Landing. To get to the top you hike up the narrow spine, sweaty hands clinging to a germ laden chain, that runs up from right to left at about 45 degrees.

The five mile easy breezy return trip to the Visitor Center after our hike. It was nice to have a mostly downhill cruise after our earlier ride and hike. If I could have found us a jacuzzi we would have made it a triathlon!

Comfy Cooper!

Checkerboard Mesa

Somebody in the National Park Service has a sense of humor, and too much time on their hands...

On Monday we hiked to Observation Point via the East Mesa trial. To get there we drove about 45 minutes up and out of Zion Canyon to a trail head 3.5 miles from Observation Point. The last mile or so of the drive is a deeply rutted dirt road. I was not expecting this. The CRV is all wheel drive but definitely not high clearance. I was happy that we didn't meet any vehicles coming toward us as I was a little anxious about having to cross over the ruts to make room.

The magnificent view from Observation Point. And the scenery is nice too! Angels Landing is in the center of the photo, about 1/3 below the rim of the canyon.