Zion

From Wikipedia – Located at the junction of the Colorado Plateau, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert, this park contains sandstone features such as mesas, rock towers, and canyons, including the Virgin River Narrows. The various sandstone formations and the forks of the Virgin River create a wilderness divided into four ecosystems: desert, riparian, woodland, and coniferous forest.

• Established: 11/19/1919
• Annual Visitors: 4,320,033
• Size: 147,243 acres

Zion Sept 20, 2020

It’s a bullet type journal today, just changing it up a bit : )

* Rangeley is 5 months old today : )

* We drove on a short, dirt road behind our hotel in Bryce Canyon City just before sunrise enjoying the pink and orange sky (see pic) before heading out to Zion. 

*  We took the scenic drive, UT Route 9, to the east entrance of Zion NP. Drove through a very cool 1.1-mile long Zion-Mt Carmel Tunnel inside the red sandstone mountains. The tunnel took 10 years to build, completed 1930’s. Before and after the tunnel, views are spectacular as you descend roughly 2000 feet driving down into the canyon on the serpentine road. See pics.

* Phew, visitor center parking lot – 12 miles into the park – was full when we arrived, before 9am! We literally circled the humungous lot several times, lucking out as someone pulled out. Lots of people. You cannot drive through the park, you must take a shuttle bus and no dogs allowed on the shuttle, so… we had one walking option along a river and were very excited and anticipated it to be a fun play trail for Rangeley on lead, but the Virgin River was contaminated with a toxic algae, signs saying, if ingested, could be fatal to dogs and children. So, no going in the river for any of us. We walked part of the 1.7-mile Pa’rus Trail with Rangeley pulling towards the river the whole way, poor guy. We all loved the upper 70’s temps, slight wind and sun. The path is used by bikers, including e-bikes – which we found went to fast – but we did enjoy the stroll.

* I went to the visitor center for our post card, pin, ink stamp and restrooms. The mass of masked crowds inside the store, outside milling around and those waiting for the shuttle were stressful for us all. We decided to continue on to Cedar City by 11am where we booked our hotel a few days ago. I am sure people will think we were crazy to only spend 2 hours at Zion but we saw a bit of the park and were satisfied enough. We live in the southwest and are thinking we are ready for the northern parks later this week. We like the less visited parks much better and knew the dog would be restrictive. We will be going to Wyoming to see Grand Teton and Yellowstone. We will be doing a lot of research as to what we really want to see and do, due to crowds, accessibility and interest.

* Springdale, UT on the south side of the park is clean, and updated. Bike rentals, everyone walking up and down the main strip, petrified wood and gem stores, cafe’s, diners, coffee and ice cream shops. The look and feel of the town had a strong resemblance to the main street in Sedona, AZ.

*  Upgraded our room choice tonight, staying at a Comfort Inn and Suites. Cedar City UT is two thirds LDS, 20,000+ out of 30,000 people so finding a restaurant open was a bit of a challenge on a Sunday.  Centro Woodfired Pizzeria was open and a great find. Sidewalk and patio dog friendly seating, great staff, wonderful conversations with other patrons from Ohio and South Carolina. The pizza, salad and beers were awesome, reminded us of Nello’s Pizza in Ahwatukee (Phoenix, AZ). See pic.

Tomorrow we head into Nevada to Great Basin National Park.