Zion

 Zion was named by the Mormons (meaning a “place of refuge”) Its original name, used by Southern Paiute was Mukuntuweap (meaning straight up). 

This is probably more appropriate considering all the tourists make Zion far from peaceful. Yet it is still possible to get away from it all. Get up early enough, walk where the tourists do not go (there is a river track between the Narrows and Zion lodge) and you can feel all alone.

Our departure from North rim of the Grand canyon was in snow. The road in/out is a bit like a wasteland as a fire in 2006 got out of control and destroyed all the trees for several miles.

Next stop Kanab for breakfast in a bakery and the Film museum. Sarah was hoping for a bit part as an extra in a Western – yet to by the boots and Stetson.

The food wagon was named the “Chuck Wagon” (Chuck was slang for food as opposed to its use as verb “to chuck up/to vomit”) There are still chuck wagon races and even an association for Chuck Wagons.

We entered Zion NP from the East side.
First off was Chequerboard Mesa,

then an overlook walk

to a view over Pine Creek Canyon and Zion canyon beyond, just before the 1.1mile tunnel.

Zion is smaller than all of the other National Parks (only 6 miles long) and closest to Las Vegas (accessible on a day visit). Although beautiful and impressive you can only access the park on a park bus. It was the busiest, the smallest park; sadly most of the day walks were closed (either due to water flow or rockfall). That left Angel’s Landing, the hardest and the most popular.

We had heard horror stories of 5 hours waits to access the narrowest ridge; we also witnessed buses emptying out at the trail head and people queued up on the ridge above the canyon. We avoided it.

Our choice was something off piste. We took the bus to the narrowest part of the canyon and walked out, back along the floor of the canyon along the Virgin river.

It was cold and in shade to start with before the sun hit the valley floor and warmed us up.
Sarah wanted to check out the pack rafting possibilities on the river; we both wanted to get away from the crowds.

The river walk was over 6 miles back to the visitor centre.

The Canyon is very steep. Photos do not do it justice.
Approx. 1200 metres of rock towers over head. Some parts of the canyon are always in shade; others sprout waterfalls or/and vegetation.

We went in hunt of a snail the size of a pin head to try to get a photo for Michael Pearson – Snail expert (to no avail; not surprising considering its size and we had no idea of the best place to look)

We had met travellers in Utah who told us that Zion was their favourite park. We arrived in Zion having already seen many other National Parks and sculptured stone mesas, buttes, columns, hoodoos, canyons, river valleys and plains.

Maybe we were less impressed than we would have been if we had seen it first. It was still wonderous but would have been better had all the walks been open and with less people.