Zion National Park

Zion National Park is the first National Park in Utah and also the busiest. It is one of the greatest geological wonders in the world. It is an oasis in the desert and a homeland for generations of native people and pioneers. The canyon was created by erosion over a few million years. Canyon cutting is still happening today. The Virgin River flows through the canyon and over the centuries it has sliced through seven layers of sedimentary rock, including 2,000 feet of solid sandstone to carve this canyon. It carries an average of 1 million tons of sediment a year, mostly during flash floods. The flash floods are so powerful that they move boulders and rip trees from the riverbank.

Since we approached Zion from the East, we had to go through the Mt Carmel tunnel. The tunnel has 2 lanes and is only 13’1 at the highest point and 11’4 along the sides. The tunnel was built in the 1920s (I think) when vehicles were much smaller then. Since we’re oversized, traffic in the opposite direction had to be stopped to allow us to drive down the middle. For that “privilege”, we paid a $15 permit fee. The drive through the tunnel was kind of strange – the tunnel is about a mile long with a few curves and it is completely dark! The tunnel is lit by the headlights of vehicles driving through. I think that there are about 2 spots along the tunnel where they blew out the rock to let natural light in, but that doesn’t really do anything to light up the tunnel because you can’t see light around a bend.

Approaching the Mt Carmel Tunnel, driving down the center

We stayed right in Zion at the Watchman campground. The campground is not far from the Visitor Center where the free shuttle service starts. Zion is a small park and since it is so busy private vehicles are not allowed on the main road to prevent congestion. Visitors must take the free park shuttle to visit the different areas. The shuttle service is very efficient and the wait is never longer than 10 minutes, perhaps 15-20 minutes if it is very busy. It takes 40 minutes to travel from the Visitor Center to the Temple of Sinawava – which is the end of the road.

One of the must-do activities in Zion is hiking The Narrows. The Narrows is a 13 mile river trail. You’re not hiking along the river, but in the river. We arrived at the start of the Narrows just after 8am and hiked up river. It was strange hiking in the river, but that strangeness quickly turned to enjoyment, it was a different experience. The water wasn’t too cold but Marcus felt cold at times as he had more of his body in the water compared to the rest of the family. Every now and then Jeff had to carry him across deeper sections.

Jeff carrying Marcus along the Narrows

Weeping rock with plants growing along the rock wall

We hiked for just over 2 hours until we reached a point where the water was too deep for walking and decided it was time to turn around. On the way back, the closer we got to the Narrows trailhead, the more people we saw. It was no longer the calm and magical place we experienced earlier in the morning, it became a zoo. There were just so many people in the water, it was like a waterpark! And of course you have many fools with inappropriate footwear just waiting for an accident to happen. We were glad that we had an early start to the day to avoid the crowd.


We also did a few normal hikes in Zion. An interesting hike (more like a walk) was to a place called Weeping Rock. It is called Weeping Rock because water seeps out from the rock and naturally you have plants in the area, some even hanging off the rock. The water has been carbon dated to 1000 years old and in another area of the park, 4000 years old. It takes water (rain or snow) a very long time to move its way down from the very 7 layers of rock to eventually flow out of the cracks.

Marcus getting sworn in as a Junior Ranger by Ranger Lauren

A few times on the trails we saw an animal that looked like a squirrel but we weren’t too sure if it’s a squirrel because it was quite big. Then we saw a poster on the shuttle bus, and yeah, it’s a squirrel alright, a fat squirrel.

Most of the attacks by wildlife at Zion are by squirrels.

There are many mule deers roaming in the park and campground. They are not as skittish as deers normally are since there are no predators in this park. We also saw more of the Merriam turkey – or wild turkey.

Too close to wildlife! But those deers just don’t care

We’re supposed to be off to the Grand Canyon – we have reservations at the South Rim. But when we looked at the map, we realized the we would be travelling back east and then west again, so the trip to the south rim doesn’t really make sense from a driving perspective. We cancelled the reservation and will be heading to Las Vegas instead! Yay! I can get some shopping in!