Zion National Park (Utah)

The east entrance to the Zion National Park is merely 2 hours west of Bryce Canyon. We entered the park in the early afternoon and drove to the Canyon Overlook Trailhead. A relatively short hike leads to the amazing Pine Creek Overlook above the Great Arch, where you get an impressive view into the National Park from above.
The Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel is one of the oldest and longest tunnels in the US. We drove through it and reached the main canyon of the National Park. Here, most of the park is only accessible by public transport. A bus operated by the National Park Service drives up and down the canyon and stops at all the trailheads and overlooks. It was already late in the afternoon and we decided not to go any further into the canyon this day. Instead, we tried to get lucky by finding a campsite in a National Park that is usually fully booked three month in advance. Well...we got lucky! The ranger at the campsite had two sites left from people that had just cancelled their reservation. We asked whether it would be okay if we only took one of those sites and parked close together. I was half expecting him to say no, but in fact he was happy, because then he could give one more site to someone else. We paid 20 $ for the night for all of us. Great success.
The next day we headed into the main canyon. First, we walked to one of the lower bus stops. The area was full of plants, a refreshing sight after weeks in the desert.
Arriving at the bus stop, we unfortunately learned that not all stops are serviced both directions... We had to take a bus back to the entrance, get out, wait in line and enter the same bus again. But it didn't take us too long and the small hike was worth it, since we even saw our first tarantula on the way! 🕷️
The bus took us all the way to the end of the road, to the trailhead of the famous Narrows hike. Unfortunately, we could not do the full hike, because we didn't have the necessary equipment. Most of the trail you walk in the river! Thus everyone has proper shoes and trousers for it. In the evening we found out that we could have rented those outside the National Park at the South Entrance...However, we walked as far as we could without waterproof clothes and got a glimpse of the trail that followed the easy hike.
On the way out we hiked to the three Emerald Pools. The trail lead up and down the west side of the Virgin River valley. It was nice, but it would have been more interesting, had there been any rain in the weeks or month before our visit.
In the evening we left the park, ate burgers at the local brewery and found a free campsite a little ways towards our next destination: Red Rocks, Nevada.Read more