Nieka and Ken Go West
Day 2: Zion National Park

Zion Canyon at Sunrise.

Our first day of actual vacation, not just getting to the vacation. We got an early start (the wonders of jet lag -- even a two-hour time change makes a difference) and took the shuttle up the canyon to Zion National Park's entrance.

We had the foresight to buy a National Parks pass before we left Michigan. This was a great investment. For $50, we have a year's entrance to all U.S. Park Service fee areas -- the most heavily visited National Parks, Monuments, and other areas overseen by the National Park Service require entrance fees of $5 to $20 per week. Getting the pass saved us at least $70 in park entrance fees, not to mention time at the entrance to each park.

Zion Park Shuttle.

Zion is closed to private vehicles (unless you are staying at the Zion Park Lodge), and instead runs shuttles through the town to the park entrance and then from the entrance up to the end of the canyon at the Temple of Sinawava. The buses run every 6-15 minutes, stopping at about 9 places in the canyon. While we initially mistrusted this -- our desire to be in control of our own schedule was strong -- the shuttles were wonderful. No parking hassles (as anyone who has visited any of the western National Parks can attest, they can be crowded with cars, trailers, and buses), and complete freedom to move through a blissfully quiet park.

View from the Court of the Patriarchs.

We rode the shuttle up to the Court of the Patriarchs, our first stop in Zion Canyon. This is a beautiful spot a few hundred feet by paved trail above the roadway that provides an excellent view of three of Zion's mountains, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We caught the next shuttle up to the lodge, a hotel within the park. The current structure, opened about 20 years ago, replaced the original wooden one that burned in the 1960s. We had tried to stay in the lodge, but it was booked for the entire time of our trip. Advance planning for staying in the National Parks means more than a month.

From the lodge, we took the trail to the Emerald Pools. The lower pool and waterfall is easily reachable along a paved path. The upper two pools and waterfalls are a bit more strenuous climbs over dirt, stone, and gravel footpaths.

Waterfall above lower Emerald Pool.

It was wise that we did this hike in the morning, as it was already in the 80s by 9:30 AM when the sun started shining on the western side of the canyon as it rose above the eastern cliffs. The upper pools were well worth the climb. The trail itself also provided vistas over large stretches of Zion.

We returned to the Lodge around noon and had some lunch before heading up the canyon to the Temple of Sinawava to the trailhead for the Riverside Walk. From here, we took a winding path along the increasingly narrow canyon floor alongside the Virgin River, the river that carved the canyon on its way to the Colorado several hundred miles to the south. The trail ends about a mile later at a wide spot in the canyon; many hikers choose to continue up the river itself through The Narrows. Not being prepared for a wet hike, we sat for a while [IMAGES] and walked back down the way we came to the shuttle stop.

Our final stop in the canyon for the day was at Weeping Rock. This is a short (half-mile one-way) mostly paved path up to a shallow but broad cave in the cliff face.

View of Weeping Rocks from behind the waterfall that gives it its name.
Ken enjoying a beer before dinner at the Bit 'n Spur.

Water seeps out of the rocks of the cliff above this cave, after having percolated through hundreds of feet of Navajo sandstone over thousands of years until it hits a less permeable layer of shale. Once the water reaches the shale, it runs horizontally until it drips out of the cliff face itself, creating an environment where plants grow hanging down the cliff.

We finished the day by riding the shuttle to the museum stop, the last before the park exit, and hiked along the canyon floor on the Pa'rus Trail. We were all alone on the trail, and it soon became apparent why: the temperature was about 105 degrees, and there was not a bit of shade on the exposed ground. While the views were wonderful, our sense was lacking. By the time we reached the end, we had drained both the water bottles we each carried and were feeling rather hot.

We went straight back to the hotel to cool off and shower before dinner at the Bit 'n Spur before walking back to the hotel for the night.

Near the hotel is a petting zoo where bison and elk are kept. While we would have preferred to see these animals in the wild, we couldn't have gotten much closer than the fence that separated us here.

A bison in Springdale, Utah.