Blogs from Zion National Park, Utah, United States, North America - page 2

Off to Zion...Hwy 12W thru Red Canyon and red rock tunnels...89S Scenic Byway ? Signs - frequent wildlife crossings next 10 miles ? Mt. Carmel Junction UT, home of the ho-made pies ?? Driving Hwy 9, Zion-Mount Carmel Hwy, into Zion National Park is a must - all of a sudden the road turns to a red color as you come upon the entrance. The rocks are massive...hard to fathom unless you see in person. A hiker and rock climber’s playground ⛰ A long tunnel thru huge red rocks!! According to Google, Zion is both the oldest and the oldest national park in Utah. Zion means “the heavenly ??city” and the park’s Kolob Canyons are named after a place described in Mormon scripture as being near God’s throne. There are no churches in Zion National Park, ... read more

We were up by 6am, figuring we needed lots of wiggle room for a whole variety of circumstances. It came in handy. We packed up and ate a quick breakfast that was included in our stay at La Quinta. It was actually pretty good- biscuits and gravy, yogurt, fruit, juice, coffee, etc. They even had waffles if I'd spent the time to make one. Then it was off for our morning drive to Zion National Park. We were hoping to get hiking by 10am. We stopped at River Rock Roasting Company, picked up more coffee, giant cinnamon rolls and packed sandwich lunches (they even put them in paper lunch sacks!), before continuing on our way. While we had made it to Zion by 9:30am, we unfortunately had to park outside the park and then take a ... read more

We spent much of Monday afternoon relaxing. After 10 active days on the road and an exciting ATV run we were all a bit wiped. We ate lunch in Kanab at the Peekaboo Kitchen which was very nice. The kids shared a wood fired pizza and Antonio and I each ate salads. After lunch, we napped and then spent the rest of the afternoon at the hotel pool. Dinner was at Houston’s End of the Trail and frankly I wouldn’t recommend it. We woke on Tuesday feeling refreshed. The sky was dark with close grey clouds and the ground outside was wet. We filled up on hot breakfast and set out for Zion National Park, determined to make the best of the weather. As we turned left onto Highway 9, it began to rain; not the ... read more

Tuesday October 11, 2016 - This morning we got up early and met Steph for breakfast in the casino at 7am. Shortly afterward, we were already saying goodbye. It was a short visit, but was so glad she came to see us. She had the rest of the day in Vegas and we got the shuttle back to the airport and picked up our rental car. We hadn't booked a GPS for the car. The cost would be the same as buying a new one, which I figured we could do if we needed one. Luckily, we found a car that had a GPS in it already, and that helped a lot. From the airport we set out for Zion National Park in Utah, about a three hour drive away. We got there in the early ... read more

We left Hatch (Bryce) and headed only about 60 miles south towards Kanab. Crazy Horse Campground. Thankfully we only had a short drive as the 40 mph gusts when you are towing a fifth wheel are quite scary and we had to pry Roy's fingers off the steering wheel when we arrived. Kanab is a small town about 40 miles south of Zion and a gorgeous drive through canyons, open land and winding roads. The entrance to Zion is much like all the others, you hand over your parks pass and I.D and head in. Not so fast you people with wide ended vehicles. So we knew that the road that cuts through Zion is Highway 9 and with the fifth wheel attached we couldn't get through the mile long tunnel. We had no idea we ... read more