Sunset at Zion National Park

Zion National Park is a place that I have wanted to visit for a long time. I’ve seen so many pictures and read so many stories that I knew that this was a unique place that couldn’t be missed. I’m going to do another post on “The Zion Narrows”, so check back in a few days for that one.

The first thing I noticed when entering the park gates was the incredible scenery. We came in through the east gate. The cost was $25/car and that gets you a week of day trips into the park, very different than our parks system here in Ontario. They also had a shuttle bus system to drop you off along the Scenic Drive which is pretty good for the environment instead of having cars drive everywhere.

Our first trail was the Emerald Pools trail, we felt this was a good way to get warmed up. One of the issues with this trail was the amount of people on it. It was totally packed, at one point we were walking in a line of about 20 people. Which seems odd if you are trying to be one with nature. So if you want to do this trail without seeing so many people, it is a really good idea to get an early start. It was a nice walk and we finished it without much difficulty.

The next morning we did the Canyon Overlook Trail. This was a fairly short trail and we finished it in about an hour. We thought about doing the more strenuous Observation Point Trail but we heard the weather was supposed to be bad in afternoon and since it would take about 5 hours we didn’t want to get caught at the top of the Observation Point if there was lightning. This Canyon Overlook Trail was on the east side of the park and required us to drive to it, there was limited parking on the side of the road so if you would like to do this trail arrive early as the parking spots fill up by midday.

Charlene always likes to tease me when I think I know where I’m going but end up getting lost. On this particular day my strategy really paid off. We missed our turn off to a trail and ended up running into a herd of Horned Sheep. It was amazing. We watched them for about 20 minutes, there were so many of them.

Had the weather been really hot, the hiking at this park would have been a lot for this Canadian to handle. Everything ended up working out really well and we were able to see and do a lot of stuff in a few days. Zion Park deserves to be near the top of your hiking/park to do list!!!