19.04 - Day 95 - Zion National Park

Friday 19th April - Zion National Park, Utah (Day 95)

Breakfast is included at Zion Park Motel consisting of a free hit at a cafe next door. We arrive at 7:15 (having been alerted to how busy the cafe can get) but all the tables are taken by prospective hikers - rather than opting to wait to sit inside, we sit outside and it is fresh. Extra clothes are retrieved from our room next door. 

The town of Springdale sits at the foot of the valley so we can see on two sides large mountains rising around us, the morning sun starting to push through the few clouds. Breakfast is 50% bigger than it needs to be so we walk away with thick fluffy pancakes and crisp waffles wrapped in paper napkins for snacks later. 

With packed lunch made in the room we hop in the car for the one mile through the ticket booth entry and manage to snare one of two slow EV chargers (thankfully an adaptor was left in the hire car to allow us to use generic chargers as well as Tesla specific ones), which for a $5 donation to the park, slowly charges to 100% whilst we head into the park on the shuttle bus - which is the only was to access the park anyway. 

There are nine stops on the 8 mile drive up the valley and with buses every 5 minutes - once we’ve collected our Junior Ranger booklets from the Information Desk - we’re soon heading all the way to the final stop to start the Riverside Walk. It’s clouded over a little and with the sun not high in the sky yet it looks darker than it was in the photos. But it was Sienna’s favourite walk following the river a mile, the kids pretending to be driving cars, sometimes on the pavement or on the sand floor alongside the river. 

Hopping back on the shuttle bus to stop 6, the Grotto, the sun suddenly emerges and the clouds are banished as we cross the river and walk some of the West Rim Trail rising higher to afford great views over the valley and the dramatic rock faces rising sharply to the top. 

The Grand Canyon was standing on the top looking down, this opposite perspective is us at the bottom gazing upwards. And upwards, we can see part of the Angel’s landing walk where permits are needed, along with confidence in your footwork and balance walking high up on a narrow ledge. Seb is very keen to go there now, thankfully the permits provide our excuses. 

Crossing back over the river away from the more desert floor of cacti and occasional small bright flowers to the more lush valet floor we walk further down the valley and with one more stop on the shuttle bus get to Court of Patriarchs. Again more trails start here, but we venture just a short way in, enough to find a pack of horses saddled up awaiting riders and then a sandy silty beach on the inner of the river bend for the kids to throw their sand bombs. 

The shuttle buses us back to the Visitor Centre of this park that has grown on me - probably just because the sun came out. The kids rush to get their Junior Park Ranger badges growing their collection. As before the simple wooden badge engages them during the day and rewards them with something tangible (and immediate). 

With the confidence of a charged car for the next days driving and keen to take in more with our one full day, we collect the car and drive up and up eastwards around several hairpins to the Carmel Tunnel, a 1.1 mile engineering feat from the post depression early 1930’s which we saunter through in our electric car. 

Immediately after the tunnel we park and walk the Canyon Overlook Trail (recommended by our motel), only 800 metres each way, but on rocky narrow paths and sandy rocks with no railings and unhappy endings should you slip off. The views though at the end, down this spur of the valley are incredible, complimented by the hairpinning road visible below making it well worth the walk. 

Like many of these sights there is a railing at the edge spanning about 20 metres long, but the scrambling rock face and edge spans maybe 100 metres in length. It is a long, long way down. Thankfully no mishaps (although doesn’t stop us parents worrying constantly that one misstep, random dance move or even basketball manoeuvre that Seb has become obsessed with since the LA Clippers game could end up horribly bad) we head down back to Zion Park Motel. 

The small play equipment entertains the kids and dinner is leftovers from last night next to the as yet un-uncovered pool from winter despite the warmth and what feels like long spring days. This park seemingly had more visible hikes than the Grand Canyon, perhaps because the Grand Canyon hikes disappeared into the canyon leaving only the day trippers and slower movers out on display. The higher rate of outdoors shops in Springdale add to the opinion this is an active region.