Brake Lights & Bug Bites

Written by Charlie! 🙂

After leaving Bryce Canyon, we headed to Zion National Park. On our way to Zion, we stopped at belly of the dragon which is an old tunnel under highway 89 to keep the highway from flooding. It is about ¼ mile long.  It was cool to see how the water has formed the smoothness of the tunnel. From there we kept driving to our campground.  The drive took us through Zion and through the Zion/Mount Carmel Tunnel. The 1.1-mile-long tunnel takes you from the east side of Zion to the west side. The tunnel doesn’t have any lights, but the tunnel builders put in 5 large windows so you can see the canyons as you drive into them.

Zion is a super big park with 3 main sections: Kolob canyon, Zion canyon and the Main Canyon. Zion Canyon is the most famous. To access Zion Canyon, you must ride on the national park’s busses. They introduced busses because there was so much traffic.  Zion canyon is incredible! Huge 1500 ft tall sandston walls make up the canyon and the way water, ice and erosion have formed it is incredible. It reminded me of a red rock version of Yosemite! 

On our first day in the canyon, we decided to do a short 1-mile hike to the Emerald Pools, a hike along a stream running through the cliffs that lead to 3 beautiful emerald pools.  We didn’t realize, however, that the 1 mile hike was only to the lower pool, so, as seems to happen often, our hike turned into 3 miles. Then, the bridge back was under construction so after a 5.5-mile hike we were all exhausted. Nonetheless, the hike was beautiful and totally worth it.

During the week we were able to spend a little time at our campground which was awesome. There was pickleball, a field, cornhole, pool, and a hot tub.

We decided we wanted a little more time there so mom booked another week. Throughout our time in Zion we did several more hikes. 

– Riverside Walk was a short hike to the start of The Narrows, a slot canyon with a river that slowly gets skinnier and skinnier. Eventually you need to have a permit to go further.

-Scout Lookout was a trail that ascended 1,000 feet using 21 switchbacks called Walter’s Wiggles, Incredible view!!! 

-Canyon Overlook Is a mile long hike to an incredible view of the canyon.

The most memorable part of Zion for me was the Narrows. In the next week, my dad and I did 9 miles of the Narrows. It was the most incredible hike I’ve ever done with turquois water and the canyon’s wavy walls. I’m super thankful that I got to check this off my bucket list and it was a really fun time with Dad. 

St. George is the biggest town nearby. It has been a while since we have seen an actual city! We went there several times for trips to target, Costco and an awesome park we found. We also had the chance to go to a Utah Tech football game. It was awesome! 

Kolob Canyons- Is the westernmost part of the park with multiple canyons with one of the most incredible views ever–jagged and smooth red rock. We did a 1 mile hike to a lookout. It was super worth but it was 17 degrees colder than at our campground, brrrrr!!

Cedar Breaks National Monument- Is a smaller version of Bryce Canyon and the 1 ½ft of snow was a nice touch.

 A final thought on our Zion stop–it was really nice to have some time to catch up on school and recharge. The southern portion of Utah is incredible I’m so thankful we got the chance to see the incredible geography and the incredible beauty of God.

       He has made everything beautiful in its time. Ecclesiastes 3:11