Zion National Park

So here’s the rundown on Zion which was checked out yesterday and today. The park is part of the <a href”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Staircase”>Grand Staircase</a> which is part of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Zion forms part of the top of the Grand Canyon system and has the Virgin River running through it.

Don’t know how to describe Zion as it was quite spectacular. Definitely glad to have visited this park instead of Death Valley National Park (especially since Death Valley would have been > 40 degrees celsius!). You enter the canyon at the bottom which gives a awesome view of the canyon walls and its colours.

Due to limited parking there is a shuttle system in place that brings you up/down the canyon where you can get off and look around, join trails etc. There are also a number of different trails in the park and checked out 3 of them (easy/medium of course!) which was fun and provided different views.

Left the park/Springdale a bit before 12 noon today to head across to Page, Arizona. As an interesting note Arizona is on the same time zone as Utah but don’t observe daylight saving so we jumped back in time. Page is pretty much a small town just of U.S. Route 89. There’s a dam which also has a hydroelectric plant and some shops, motels and fast food joints.

Anyways as usual, here is the pretty pictures for todays blog..

Driving into Springdale, Utah

Bottom canyon view

Weeping Rock

View from accomodation at Driftwood Lodge – Springdale is pretty much at the entrance to the canyon

Next few are views from Emerald Pools trail

From a viewpoint along the shuttle route