Zion National Park, Utah

Day 2 of our journey. 

We arrived in Springdale, Utah in the late afternoon  It was about a 3 hour drive from Las Vegas.  We are staying at Zion Canyon Campground. The free shuttle to Zion National Park is right out front, which makes it really convenient. Oh my gosh, the view just from the RV park is amazing.

We didn't go into the Zion National Park the first day.  We did take the Springdale shuttle and go into the little town and browse some shops. Then we came back and had a campfire and cooked hotdogs and corn on the cob on the grill.

Day 3

Today we went into Zion National Park.  We took the free shuttle right outside the RV park, which was nice.  It drops you off right in front of the entrance to ZNP.  Then, once in the park there is another free shuttle that you can take.  It has 9 stops.

Stop 1 is the beginning at the Visitor Center.   There you find a nice gift shop and information about the park.  We stopped in to get our National Park Passports stamped.

Stop 2 is at the Zion Human History Museum. It has some info and artifacts relating to discovery of Zion Canyon.  It's a pretty small museum, but from behind the museum you have a great view of the West Temple, Sundial, and the Alter of Sacrifice.

Stop 3 - Canyon Junction. Just beautiful views.

We walked down to the river.  Beautiful place.  I had to take off my shoes and get my feet in the river.  Just one of those things I had to do.

Stop  4 - Court of the Patriarchs.  there is a short path up to a viewpoint where you can see really well.  On the left is Abraham Peak.  The center one is Isaac Peak, and the white one on in the back on the right is Jacob Peak.

And I found this cute little Mickey Mouse cactus on the way up to the view point.

Ok, well, he looked like Mickey Mouse to me!

Stop 5 - Zion Lodge.  The lodge is here, and some cabins that can be rented.  There is a full service restaurant and an open air café.  We stopped at the café to grab a bit to eat, and then headed out to hike to the Lower Emerald Pool. There are 3 of them, the lower, middle and upper.  The lower is about .6 of a mile hike.  We decided we need to at least do that.  It was supposed to be an 'easy' hike.  It probably is easy for younger, in-shape people, or even for people in our shape if it was the first thing they did, but boy, did we feel our age and lack of fitness.  But, we did it.  We made it to the lower pool. 

The Lower Pool wasn't all that impressive, I didn't think.  But it was ok, and the hike there had some amazing views.

Stay tuned for more Zion National Park pictures.