Blogs from Zion National Park, Utah, United States, North America - page 7

Advertisement

North America » United States » Utah » Zion National Park November 22nd 2012

This year for the Thanksgiving Holiday my boyfriend and I finally got to do part of a road trip we've been thinking about for 3 years Utah's National Parks! 10 days of driving, hiking and photo taking here we come! We started our trip in the little town of Springdale just outside of the Zion National Park Entrance. Springdale was very quaint and really cool. We stayed at a wonderful place called Pioneer Lodge. The rooms were very reasonable, quiet, great views and the beds were very comfortable. It was even next to a really yummy pizza shop. During our stay in Zion we did a few things, we hiked Angels Landing and the Narrows among a few other smaller hikes. Being that it was November we were a little concerned about the Narrows being too ... read more
Looking Up
Nevada
Beginning

North America » United States » Utah » Zion National Park November 2nd 2012

Just when we thought our trip couldn’t get any better, our next two stops were Bryce Canyon and Zion National Park. These were two of my biggest highlights on a trip full of highlights. Up until this point we hadn’t seen much wildlife, but that was about to change. I had spent the best part of 4 days chasing these little chipmunks everywhere, trying to get a really good close-up photo. Little did I know I could have just waited for easier opportunities. Our road to Bryce from Torrey was another scenic one – highway 12. Again, this is known as one of the best roads to drive in the US. We traversed 9000 foot summits and descended 14% grades into lush valleys with small rivers lined with yellow and green trees. The landscape at Bryce ... read more
Mountain Goat
Observation Point
Angel's Landing trail

North America » United States » Utah » Zion National Park September 3rd 2012

We needed to get back to Las Vegas, so we just took the shuttle tour through the park. Definitely will need to return to fully explore.... read more
100_8921
100_8924
100_8932

North America » United States » Utah » Zion National Park August 27th 2012

Later in the day after leaving the Grand Canyon, we followed the advice of a couple of cheerful ladies in an electronics store and camped at The Coral Pink dunes which were a set of huge (and pink) dunes. It was a bit of an off-road play centre, but thankfully all the ATVs stopped at dinner time and didn't start up again. We sat and watched the stars for a while as it was a beautiful evening. There wer e a lot of shooting stars too. oh, the reason for being in a small electronic store was trying to find power adaptors and connectors so we could listen to our mp3 players through the car stereo. Chris had come up with the Universal Law of American Radio: "The strength of the signal is inversely proportional to ... read more
Coral Pink Sand Dunes
Coral Pink Sand Dunes
Nena looking melancholy


Ahhhh! They're about to close the computer room so I don't have time to write a blog! Enjoy the photos anyway :( I'll update this asap. Much love, Streets. x... read more
Yay!
Oh hang on, now we're in Utah....
The excitement was too much for Andrew.


A brief, yet longer than enough, weekend in Vegas, and we were back on the road, on our way to the Grand Canyon. Similar to our arrival in Yosemite, we entered the park with no camping reservations and only hopes and intentions to sleep under a starry night on the edge of this famous crack in the earth. Unlike Yosemite, the Grand Canyon was not so cooperative, and upon arrival, we were told to hurry to South Camp, a nearly one hour drive towards the South Rim's east exit to perhaps get one of the last spots. After the last few hours of driving through the desert, we weren't quite ready to rush back into the car, and already being in the latter half of the day, we decided to forgo our hopes of camping and ... read more
GC10
The Narrows
Zion Canyon


We have somehow lost another hour today, I suspect it was when we crossed into Utah from Arizona. A coolish start today (mid 50'sF) and a skype chat with Marta in Brussels at 6-30am, before getting breakfast in the Hotel at 7am. Annette is now feeling better and joined us for breakfast before we set off to the Zion visitor centre to catch the shuttle bus to the top of Zion Canyon to do the riverside walk. This walk takes you along the Virgin River into a narrow canyon. The paved way stops as the canyon narrows and the only way on is to start wading up the river itself. Vern and Annette decided they did not want to get wet so turned back at this point but Bob and Dinah carried on wading upstream for ... read more
Bob in the Narrows
Colorado Columbine
Daisy


We spent another evening watching the sunset over the Grand Canyon in a much quieter spot this time just above the start of one of the trails down into the Canyon. I ventured a bit of the way down to get the feel of being part of the magic that is the Canyon at sunset and soak up the timelessness of those ancient steps. Although thousands of modern visitors have trodden the pathways since it was still possible to sit by yourself and think and imagine. Back at the hotel I managed to snap a lovely little blue bird and we saw more young elk browsing at the roadside causing traffic hold up as people stop to look. A leisurely 8am breakfast this morning for three of us as Annette had stomach cramps and felt nausous ... read more
bird on post
Dinah by Big Bend Zion Canyon
Dinah by Virgin River Zion Canyon


We arrived late in the afternoon at Zion. The Watchman Campground was a little “close to other campers” but our campsite was between two canyons of Navaho Sandstone and views were spectacular. Zion has huge (the largest I have ever seen) rocks. The top layer is Navaho Sandstone (laid down in the Jurassic Period) that is much younger than any the rocks we saw at the Grand Canyon. Under this sand stone is a layer of Red Sandstone created in the Triassic Period (still younger than the Paleozoic rocks on the rim of Grand Canyon). The rocks still contain beautiful swirls from the sands that covered this area in the Jurassic (larger than the Sahara Desert of today). Two to Three thousand feet of sandstone stand in the canyons. Debi and I hiked trails along the ... read more
Hiking in Zion
Zion at Sunrise
Zion big rocks


Leaving Flagstaff we crossed massive dams and barren dessert landscapes. Traveling from northern Arizona into Southwestern Utah, we landed in Zion National Park. Zion. How do you explain Zion? You don’t. You go see Zion. So I’ll do my best but you must visit this place. The Grand Canyon rocked my world, but I’ve never seen or known of anything like Zion. Imagine swirly, fast moving, deep water. Then imagine it frozen in time – not as ice, but as though you could stop a crashing wave for one moment and get a good look at its detail. You might notice the lines, where they are parallel and where they cross. You see round, rolling, globe like waves and sharp jagged ones. Maybe some look to be in unison and some fight and crash ... read more
Angel's Landing Chains
Angel's Landing Hike to its Peak
Further in The Narrows




Tot: 0.156s; Tpl: 0.007s; cc: 5; qc: 88; dbt: 0.0961s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb