Zion National Park

Southern Utah is an almost featureless desert, except for a number of spectacular national parks and monuments.  Zion National Park, on the western side, is one of the biggest and best.  We stayed several days at Zion Canyon Campground, which is just a few minutes from the entrance to the park, in the nice little town of Springdale.  The temperature was pleasant in the mornings and evenings but quite hot during mid-day.

Many of the main attractions of Zion are available only by shuttle.  We left the dogs in our air-conditioned motorhome, drove our pickup truck to the Visitors' Center, and climbed aboard a bus.  As we rode along, a recorded voice told us how the landscape we were seeing along Zion Canyon was formed.  Over many millions of years in the distant past, seas and lakes deposited vast quantities of sand there.  Pressure from the layers above, along with minerals from various sources of water, compressed the sand into sandstone, whose color varied according to how much iron oxide it contained.  At one point what is now called the Virgin River began flowing through the area, eroding the sandstone and creating the incredible walls and rock formations we were seeing.  We were on the canyon floor, and beautiful limestone cliffs rose to the sky, with awe-inspiring sheer walls and peaks all around us.

Nancy and I were determinded to give a better account of ourselves on this trip with respect to hiking and exercise than we did in our initial motorhome tour of the country last fall.  Our first hike was on the Emerald Pool and Grotto trails.  They were relatively easy, except for some strenuous climbing at the top, where Nancy uttered a few words of complaint.  That was embarrassing, since there were many plus size hikers and some with obvious knee and hip disabilities and one fellow with an artificial leg, and I heard nary a peep from any of them.  Maybe they were out of breath.

Back in town, we located a state liquor store (the only kind allowed in Utah) inside a gift shop.  There were a few Utah wines but they weren't highly recommended by the salesman.  He did tell us that a polygamist Morman compound is only twenty miles or so from Springdale, and that he used to visit it when he was a nurse certifying the children for the WIC program.  A little local color that you won't find outside Utah.

The next day Nancy and I hiked the lovely Riverside Walk trail, which follows the Virgin River to the point where the canyon narrows and can be accessed only by wading through the river.  We didn't do that part.  Squirrels along the trail were so accustomed to humans that they sometimes sat in the middle of the trail as people walked by, or darted in and out among the hikers.

We also explored other sections of the park, including the magnificent Kolob Canyon, on our way to Bryce Canyon National Park.

The Wilsons thoroughly enjoyed Zion and heartily recommend it.