Greetings from Utah. Wow. The desert scenery is captivating. My eyes kept repeating to my head yesterday one simple impression – Wow!
The drive on I-15 from Las Vegas to St. George, Utah has some mountain landscapes to admire, but the 40 miles or so through Arizona and the Virgin River Canyon Gorge was the only place that stood out along that stretch of road.
Virgin River Canyon Recreation Area, Arizona.
Cactus flower.
There are places to park an RV or car and about two dozen covered areas for a picnic.
The Virgin River Canyon area was wonderful in the 75 degree warmth. July would be a different story here when virtually every day is assured to be 90 to 115 degrees in mid-day sun.
Welcome to Utah
St. George, Utah
Zion National Park is about 40 miles past St. George on Route 9. I only stopped in St. George for gas. The setting of the city is gorgeous with expansive views of desert mesa rocks and Signal Peak at 10,365 ft.
Pine Valley Mountains seen from Hurricane.
Hurricane, almost a suburb of St. George, is the last town with major services before the Zion park district area. There is a WalMart in Hurricane for last minute supplies and the few hotels looked fine for someone wanting to be a few miles closer to Zion than St. George.
Springdale, Utah is at the south entrance to Zion. This is a quaint little town with hotels, B&Bs, restaurants and stores and a resort-style lodge Best Western.
Best Western Zion Park Inn.
A quick walk around the Best Western had me wondering if there are rooms without fantastic views. Rates here rival the rates at the Zion Lodge a few miles into the National Park at about $180 to $200. Both the Best Western and the Zion National Park lodge had walk-up vacancy.
View from the back porch of the Best Western Zion Park Inn.
The Hampton Inn is almost ready to open right next door to the Best Western. The building already displays signage.
Zion National Park
I checked National Park visitor statistics last week. Zion National Park is the most visited of the five National Parks in Utah by a factor of two over Bryce Canyon and Arches and 4x to 6x more visitors than Capitol Reef or Canyonlands. Zion gets about 3 million visitors a year and makes the Top Ten most visited National Parks in the USA.
It is recommended to catch the free shuttle in Springdale to the Visitor Center about a mile or two from the town. The Zion National Park parking lot is usually full by early morning in peak season. I arrived around noon on a Tuesday in May and the place was already crowded. In summer the park averages more than 10,000 visitors a day.
The heavy traffic means Zion Canyon road is closed to private vehicles most of the year and visitors must take a shuttle bus from the Park Visitor Center to stops at locations on the one road into the canyon. Shuttle busses continually move up and down the Zion Canyon road and pass by in both directions about every 6 to 10 minutes.
Zion Canyon free shuttle for visitors can also carry bikes.
European Utah
Riding over a dozen different shuttle busses as I stopped at each place and photographed the scenery in between the bouts of rain revealed that the majority of visitors in the park yesterday were Europeans.
I felt like I was back in Berlin hearing more German yesterday than English. French and Italian visitors were common. I don’t recall hearing anyone speaking Spanish.
Zion Canyon National Park view from Weeping Rock.
I hiked alongside the Virgin River at the last stop up in Zion Canyon. In good weather this hike goes miles into the canyon by hiking through the shallow Virgin River into gorges where the canyon walls are as narrow as 30 feet across and 2,000 feet high.
Yesterday was not the kind of day for the river hike. About ten minutes out on the paved portion of the trail a torrential downpour of rain and hail hit and a hundred people on the river walk trail sought shelter from the storm under any available tree foliage.
90% of us did not have adequate covering to be coated with a layer of ice.
I had a waterproof vest, but I was wearing shorts in the 70 degree temperature that quickly plummeted. Even taking the shuttle to go directly back to my car would have taken 40 minutes. Many of the visitors committed to heading back to the visitor center to get dry clothing.
Fortunately the temperature climbed back up to the upper 60s and the chill wore off as I continued to hike around the different stops.
Be prepared for the weather changes on days when storms are a potential threat.
Speaking of weather. I am at Bryce Canyon and the skies have turned blue with the storm clouds to the north and Bryce Canyon to the south. The temperature is in the mid-30s here at 7,000 ft. elevation. Forecast for Bryce Canyon is 40s and intermittent storms today and snow tonight.
Time to get moving and see more of Utah’s natural wonders.
And today I will carry the gear to keep me dry and warm, whatever the conditions.
Rock climbing is popular in Zion National Park.
The tunnels on Highway 12 at Red Canyon on the way to Bryce Canyon National Park.
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