White Mountain Trading Post in Mount Carmel, Utah May 14

Thursday morning, May 16, 2024 we were up and out the door at 6:15 am to drive to the Eastern entrance of Zion National Park. In the semi-darkness before the sun was up, we saw a coyote run across the road in front of us on the drive. No sign of a roadrunner.

Zion National Park

Zion National Park gets its name from early Mormon settlers who named the area “Zion” which means “refuge” or “sanctuary. In 1919 President Woodrow Wilson established Zion National Park. Today, it encompasses more than 148,000 acres and sees more than 4 million visitors each year. They may have all been there the day we visited.

We passed through the entrance around 6:40 am as the sun was casting its glow over the horizon behind us, and stopped at the first pull offs to get some photos. If I try to describe the feeling of the views we saw, I would run out of adjectives and they would never do it justice anyway. The magnificence, the grandeur, the stately elegance of the mountains and rocks we were surrounded by make you stop and stare in awestruck wonder.

We were heading toward the Visitor Center and Shuttle Bus Center over by the Southern entrance near Springdale. It is about a 13 mile drive that is just overwhelming in its beauty. It’s hard to understand how mountains and piles of rocks can be so mesmerizing. We drove through two tunnels on the way. The first one is very short but the second one is 1.1 miles in length and was completed in 1931. If your vehicle is over a certain height and length, you must pay for a permit to pass through and only during the hours the park roads are staffed by rangers. They will halt oncoming traffic so you can drive down the middle of the tunnel. Fortunately, our Voyager is just under the maximum dimensions, but it was still a bit hair-raising the first time we drove through.

We didn’t stop at any pull offs after that because we were trying to get to the shuttle buses AND we were coming back through this way later in the day as well as returning later in our stay to just drive the part that private vehicles can drive on to get more photos.

We arrived at the Visitor Center at 7:00 am and jumped on the first shuttle we could, which took 20 minutes because of the crowd.

Court of Patriarchs

Our first stop was the Court of Patriarchs, three peaks named Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. You have to hike up a short trail to get to a good viewpoint of the peaks. Once there, we waited for the few people who got off with us to clear out so we could get a couple of selfies with the peaks behind us and without people in them. You wish you could have the park and stops all to yourself, but that just isn’t happening. If you want, you can take a trail and hike to the next stop, but we jumped back on the shuttle because we were saving our old-person strength for some hiking later. In fact, at the next stop.

The Grotto

We got off at The Grotto (along with a LOT of other people because they were hiking up to Angel’s Landing. This is a difficult hike and requires a permit to hike. There are multiple warnings about making sure you have enough water and the ability to endure this trail/hike. We’re told the view at the top is worth it. If we were 40 years younger, we’d have done it. But we’re old farts and we know our limitations.

Instead, we hiked a part of the Western Rim Trail on the way to Angel’s Landing and just basked in the beauty that surrounded us. Then we turned around and hiked back to the shuttle bus stop.

The Narrows

Our final stop was the Temple of Sinawava where we hiked down to The Narrows. It was about a mile down to where we had to stop because it was flooded and the water was too swift to make your way farther into The Narrows. Still, the views were astounding and the fast-flowing water was beautiful to watch as it flowed over the rocks you would normally walk over to go farther into The Narrows.

Amazingly, the water creates a swamp in these mountains. And the water trickling down from rain and snowmelt allows an abundance of plant life to grow and flourish on the mountain walls. As you hike down to The Narrows and back you are encompassed by plant and flower growth that competes with the sheer towering mountain walls and the swiftly passing ground water for your attention.

We made our way back to the shuttle bus stop and took the bus back to The Lodge where we had a less-than-satisfying snack at the cafe. The only way you can get burgers is already dressed? Who does that? Well, they do when they’re serving you a frozen mess that is warmed up in a toaster. Cindy doesn’t like mustard, pickles or onions and all their burgers had those condiments already on them. We settled for a likewise warmed up slice of frozen pizza and got the hell out of there. We took the shuttle back to the Visitor Center where we picked up some souvenirs befoe driving back to Nomad.

We ended up spending 5 hours in the park, from 7 am to noon, not counting our drive. As with most National Parks, if you’re going to go and avoid the majority of the crowds, we advise arriving early and leaving early. By the time we left at noon the place was absolutely packed. And this was on a weekday in mid-May.

By the time we arrived back at Nomad it was 1 pm and we were ready to surrender to the Sandman for a nap.

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