Advertisement
Published: November 29th 2006
We arrived at Zion National Park fairly late in the day after stopping to do some shopping just outside of Bryce. Was a beautiful evening so we decided to head up the valley to see the sights. There were heaps of deer everywhere - as the valley floor in Zion is fairly low in elevation the mule deer population stay there for the winter. Was also supposed to be quite a few mountain lions around because of this, but we didn’t see any!
Got up early again to head out to Kanab to see if we could get walk in permits (they allow 10 online and 10 walk in permits per day) to Coyote Buttes North and the “Wave” in the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument wilderness area. Walked into the office in Kanab and they had spare permits for that day (usually you get one for the day after) so we decided to take them as the snow storm was supposed to be arriving that night. The walk into the Wave takes about 1 to 1.5 hours but there is no track as such. They give you some photos and a map at the office when you pick up your
permits and you have to use the photos to identify landforms and make your way via these as checkpoints - was pretty fun actually! We met a German and French couple who were a little lost though and were going to turn back so they came with us and we all eventually arrived at the formation. Was an incredible area!
Back at Zion for the night we arrived at the tent to see a group of deer grazing in the campsite next to us - they are pretty used to people and cars so are quite happy to be around as long as you don’t get too close. Was a brilliant sunset on the cliffs behind us, making them glow bright red.
The next morning we awoke to sleet and dark grey clouds over the valley. We had originally wanted to do the Angel’s Landing Walk to overlook Zion valley but unfortunately the weather was windy and cold both days we were there so we decided it wasn’t a good idea, especially with the snow. While they valley still reasonable clear of snow, the higher altitudes after the tunnel had lots of snow already so we were happy
to be leaving and heading south to warmer climates around Lake Powell.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.126s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 62; dbt: 0.0472s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
casey
non-member comment
hey guys. wow that look awesomw!!! very cool photos. looks surreal!