Even from a distance as I approached Zion National Park I could tell it was going to be a special place.  The cliffs seem to rise vertically out of the desert, with varying hues from deep reds to almost white.

Approaching from the south, there’s a main road that runs straight through the park, passing through two tunnels, and another that branches off of it and is accessible only by shuttlebus to limit the traffic there.  Since it was later in the day when I got there, I took the straight through road, with the aim of camping on the other side and getting an early start to explore the other branch of the canyon in the morning.  This turned out to be a good plan, and I got a beautiful view of the park driving through it the first day.  What spectacular cliffs.

The road took switchbacks up the side of the canyon, and the views were superb!

The first tunnel was over a mile long, but built back when cars were narrower (and RVs didn’t exist!), so it was quite narrow.  There were size limitations to go through it at all, and when an RV needed to go through, traffic was stopped so that it could travel down the middle of the tunnel.  There are so many RVs in National Parks here that I’m guessing the traffic in the tunnel was alternating all day as they went through.

The scenery at the upper part of the park was less spectacular, but still very pretty, with the road weaving through the gorges.  The stratification of the rock and the varying colors were really nice here.

The second tunnel was thankfully wide enough for two way traffic!

At the top of the park I was needing a place to rest for a while, and since Baby Blue likes hearing the stories of the old ones, we spent some time parked here.  This Chevy truck was sitting there on rotted tires, so obviously hadn’t been moved in ages, but was in remarkably good condition otherwise, probably due to the dry air.

I spent the night parked at the end of a secluded 4wd track, then got up early to drive back down the canyon and catch the shuttle.  As I was waiting to get through the narrow tunnel again, I looked up to find this crew hanging around just above the FJ.

Including Mr Majestic here, who was watching the herd from above.  I believe that these are bighorn sheep.

The bus made several stops in the limited access branch of the canyon, and I went for hikes at a couple of them.  The first was at Emerald Pools, which had a nice little waterfall coming over the undercut cliff above the trail.

I’m guessing that in a wetter year, or in a different season, this would be much bigger and prettier.

The view down the canyon was incredible though.

I then took the shuttle further upcanyon to the beginning of The Narrows trail, which followed the Virgin River.  The whole canyon was created through erosion, as the Virgin River ate through the sandstone.

The Narrows trail continues a lot farther than I took it, but is primarily followed by wading in the river.  Since I didn’t have river shoes or hiking poles with me, I decided just to enjoy the easier part of the hike.  In fact, I found myself a nice little secluded spot along the river, where I didn’t see anyone for the hour or so that I spent there.  And of course I had my boots off and was wading in the sandy-bottomed river, but the water was sooooo cold!!

This little squirrel must have also been looking for some solitude, because he came and sat next to me for a while.

As I was hiking out again, mule deer were grazing in the fields nearby.

Another hike that I would have liked to have done was the trail to Angel’s Landing — given that name because “it’s so high that only angels could land there.”  Unfortunately they were doing some maintenance there with a helicopter, so the trail was closed.  Looking at it more closely, I’m not sure that this was actually unfortunate… that’s a really steep climb, and I’m not in the best shape of my life!

I did some more wandering up and down trails just looking at the beautiful rocks and cliffs before making my way back to the shuttle and the car.  This is one of those parks that I think I’d like to spend more time at.  I’m definitely going to come back here again in the not-too-distant future, with canyon shoes and poles to hike The Narrows trail, and with better aerobic ability get up the Angel’s Landing trail.  That combination would be spectacular.

At the visitor’s center in the park, I also came across another Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) statue — why are they all shirtless? — that acknowledged all the work done by those men to build the facilities of the park.  Everywhere I go I see evidence of what a deep and lasting impact that program had on the whole country, especially the National Parks, and can’t help but admire what a brilliant plan it was.

As I drove away from Zion, I could see more cliffs looming in the distance, and drove down more beautifully colored canyons.  It confirmed in my mind again what an incredible place Utah is.  Yep.  I’ll definitely be back with the canyon shoes….