Days 17-21
April 21- April 26
Well friends, you might want to grab a coffee for this one. It’s going to take a little while. Lol We packed in a lot of little adventures during our 5 night stay in Zion.
Wednesday morning we headed out across north western Arizona into southern Utah under beautiful blue skies and 70 degree temps. Since the length limit through the Mt Carmel tunnel is a combined 50 feet, we had to take the longer southern route into Springdale, Utah through Native lands and the Kaibab Indian Reservation. Tumbleweeds blew across our path as we headed out on the back roads and through the small towns of Kanab, Fredonia and Hurricane. Rich enjoyed being off the highway, cruising the single lane roads while taking in the views. As we rolled into Springdale, we realized that the views in Winslow and Page were just a warm up for what we were about to experience. When we arrived at the campground, we were instantly on sensory overload and excited to explore our new home for the next 6 days. To add to the excitement of it all, we scored a site on the Virgin River, right at the base of Watchman Peak.
We settled in our first night, toured the town on our bikes and got the info on how the shuttle system works. What a nightmare! In order to get a shuttle for the following day, you have to get on recreation.gov at precisely 4:59:59 and click send with your departure time, provided you can find service. All tickets are sold out by 5:01. Most people, including us, were out of luck. When we got back to the camper, we discussed our hiking plans for the next day. We decided to ride our bikes the 6 miles up to The Grotto to hike Angel’s Landing. We left around 8am and arrived at the trailhead a little before 9. The ride up was amazing. We stopped several times along the route to snap pics and take in the majestic beauty of Zion. We would have never had this experience had we been on the shuttle. When we started off on the hike, we were surprised to see that the entire West Rim trail to Angel’s Landing was paved with bathrooms at the bottom and at the top. It was a spectacular and incredibly beautiful switch-backed trail that brought us 1500ft up the canyon walls to the most impressively scary summit we’ve ever encountered. When we reached Scouts Lookout, there was a crowd waiting to scale the final ½ mile spine to Angel’s Landing. We decided to join them, but soon realized that this may not have been the best decision as there was only one shared ‘scary’ narrow way up and down. We climbed (holding on to the chains) for about a 1/8 of a mile and decided the wait and crowds were not worth it, so we headed back to eat lunch at Scouts Lookout while taking in the breathtaking views. We enjoyed a leisurely hike back down to our bikes at the Grotto and headed back down the canyon road.
When we got back into town, we headed over to the Zion Guru River Outfitter to get our gear for tomorrow’s big hike through the iconic and super popular ‘The Narrows’ river walk. We decided that if we didn’t get a shuttle pass for the next day, we would ride the 9 miles to The Temple of Sinawava for the hike. At 4:45pm, we planted ourselves on the floor of the Front Desk lobby of the campground office, connected to the wifi and waited to hit purchase. And we did it! We were 2 of the lucky 30 who would be boarding the first shuttle up the Canyon.
After a night of trying to capture the night sky at 4:25am, (which after hiking the Narrows, was not the best decision) we got up at 6am to get ready to catch the first shuttle from the Visitor’s Center out at 7am. It was a chilly morning and we were both apprehensive about setting off and hiking in 40 degree water and 52 degree temps for 5 hours, knowing that for the majority of time, the sun wouldn’t be high enough in the sky to warm up the canyon walls. As our nerves started to get the better of us, we got off the shuttle at the Zion Lodge to get warm and grab a cup of coffee. Unfortunately it was take out service only, which defeated our purpose. So we hopped back on the next shuttle and off we went to final stop #9, The Temple of Sinawava. It was a mile hike in along the river walk to the gateway of the Narrows river adventure. About 20 minutes in on this incredible water journey, we realized we were dressed appropriately and pressed on. We were grateful that we had gotten an early start as there were very few other hikers in the water and it made for a very peaceful and enjoyable hike. We really didn’t have a destination in mind, but we knew we wanted to experience the section called Wall Street. Along the way, we saw Mystery Falls, Narrows Alcove, the Grotto Alcove and the confluence of the Virgin River with the Orderville Canyon where the Wall Street section of the hike begins. When we made it to Floating Rock, we kept wanting to journey on to see what was around the next bend. That excitement continued until we reached Paired Boulders. Once there, we met up with a couple of women who let us know that just past the boulders, the water became chest deep. And we all know that for Rich, that’s over his head. After 4 or 5 miles or so and at least 2+ hours in, we decided to turn around and head back out. The journey back was quite a different experience. By now the sun was almost overhead and the canyon walls came alive. The crowds also started to stream in. We took a short detour down Orderville Canyon to check it out. We didn’t head in too far as we knew we were starting to stretch our time a bit too long for Tucker. So we headed back out and enjoyed the ever changing landscape as we navigated around the stream of people. This was one of the most exhilarating and exhaustive hikes we’ve ever done and so glad we had the shuttle for the ride back! We both slept really well that night.
The following morning, we drove through the Zion/Mt Carmel tunnel to the east entrance of Zion NP to see what we had missed due to towing the trailer. The two lane steep and windy road provided spectacularly unique views of the park, especially on the east side of the tunnel. It’s hard to believe that this incredible road and mile long tunnel carved through the canyon walls was built in 1930. What an amazing feat! Since it was Saturday, there were lots of cars parked along the side of the road with visitors stepping out to take in the views. We were happy to relax in the comfort of the truck and drive the 13 miles from west to east to take in the views of our Nation’s 4th most popular National Park. Tucker was happy too!
When we got back from our road trip, we had time to hop on the bikes and head up to Zion Lodge to hike the Upper and Lower Emerald pools. It was a nice short 3 mile round trip hike to the over-hanging cliffs and pools. Unfortunately, due to the drought, the waterfalls were barely flowing and the pools were drying up. We did enjoy the rim trail down as we took in the views of the towering canyon walls and the Zion Lodge below. When we rode back to the entrance of the park, we decided to stop at the Zion Brew Pub for a drink. We were so glad we did because Sharon and her daughter Rachel, who we had enjoyed meeting at the campground, were just getting there too after their hike in The Narrows. We had a great time sharing stories of our collective camping and life adventures. Sharon is a retired Forester and had great suggestions for places to see. We ended the night with Sharon coming down to the campsite to enjoy a fire and more great conversation. We even got an open invitation to Spokane, Washington and possibly a new backpacking friend! It’s been a lot of fun meeting so many different people on this trip.
Sunday was our final day in Zion. The plan was to mountain bike the Hurricane Cliffs (J.E.M. Trails)Trail system on BLM land in Virgin just 25 minutes west of us, and then have fun back at the campsite finding a way to bushwhack our way up towards the famous Watchman Peak that towered in front of our camper all week. We headed out to the trails around 9am. Thankfully we had service and the MTB Project app had a complete map of the all the trails. What a great trail system! There were amazing views of the Virgin River and Zion NP way off in the distance. There were lots of campers enjoying their (free) sites out in the desert among the trails. There was moderate climbing for the first 7 miles of the ride. We had fun picking up different trails on our way to find the trail Dead Ringer, which Rich had heard was the trail to ride back down to the river. He was absolutely right! It was a beautifully fun, fast and flowy trail that had us smiling all the way. In our excitement, we did miss our turn and ended up heading down then up and around the rim trail that ran dangerously close to the cliff edge of the Virgin river. This trail was quite a challenge for sure. We put in a lot more miles than planned, but the exhaustion was well worth it! By the time we got back, we were pretty tired and settled on just imagining the bushwhack path we would have taken had we actually attempted it.
We are so grateful that we had spectacular weather and good health to carry us through for all of our adventures in Zion. We are looking forward to our 6 night stay in Bryce!
