Day 41 - Zion National Park, UT

This morning, we took the campground shuttle to the south entrance of Zion National Park in the town of Springdale. We walked across the bridge to the pedestrian entrance to the park when I realized that I had left my drivers license and the park pass back at the trailer. We mentioned it to the park service employee and she waved us through without it reminding us to treat it like cash. We then got in line for the Zion shuttle bus. It was a 40 minute wait.

The shuttle bus is the only way to access the really scenic trails in the park and we took the shuttle to its last stop. We walked up the river trail until the beginning of the Narrows where you need to cross the river. The trail continues in the river itself. We opted to turn around at this point. Two of the most well known hikes in Zion are the Narrows and Angel's Landing.

It was very cool at this time of day as the trail was on the south side of the east-west canyon. Today's forecast was for high 90s by mid-afternoon. Not a good time to be hiking. There were a lot of people on the trail with their rented shoes, neoprene socks and shoulder high walking sticks. Supposedly to be able to feel for deep holes as you are walking in the river.

Here is where we turned around. A lot of people but the bus driver said that this was nothing compared to Memorial Day weekend. The line of hikers here and on Angel's Landing was continuous. We did not venture up Angel's Landing as it was a strenuous hike with a lot of elevation gain and hiking on rocks holding onto a chain. The pictures show thousand foot drops on both sides of the trail in places. Some other time...

We walked the short hike up to Weeping Rock where there was a continual drops of water coming out of the sandstone cliffs. We got back on the shuttle after lunch and stopped at the Human History Museum. This is the view from the back deck showing, from left to right, the Temple, the Sundial and the Altar of Sacrifice. In case you haven't guessed, all of the features were named by Mormon settlers including the park name, Zion.

Another picture looking up-canyon as we are waiting for the shuttle bus. You never need to wait long as they are spaced out 5-10 minutes apart. We went to the park visitor's center but there wasn't much there besides the gift shop. I expected some displays or something. Anyway, we showed up early for the return trip to the RV park on the shuttle.

Added on Friday. According to Wikipedia, this is the view from Angel's Landing. The view may be worth the hike...