Utah Vacation-Zion Wrap Up

Today was our last full day of vacation. I wanted to do one more trail in Zion and Susan wanted to find some nice Zion shirts. So, we packed our cooler and headed for Zion National Park.

Since we were in no hurry to catch a shuttle, we arrived at the East entrance a little later than usual. That, and it being Friday, meant that there were more people trying to get in. The Ranger was at the gate and the line was backed up pretty far. By the time we crept to third in line, another Ranger came out opened a second lane. I was just about to pull into that lane and be the first, but a guy in a Toyota truck cut right in front of me. Typical.

The trailhead for the East Rim Trail is just inside the entrance. We arrived, parked, and prepared for the hike. Susan decided to stay at the trailhead (she does not have marathon runner energy levels and her foot was sore), so it was just me and Andrew. The payoff for this hike is a view into the Zion canyon from the edge of a cliff above Weeping Rock. The trail from within the canyon has been closed due to a rockslide that was still being cleaned up. So, if you wanted that view, this was the only way to see it. Well, I would have liked to have seen it, but this is one of the longest hikes in the park and neither of us was ready for an all day trek.

We decided to go out for an hour or 2 miles, whichever came last. The first mile of the trail is relatively flat and very sandy; it is like walking on a volleyball court on the beach.  Eventually, it gets steeper and rockier and the switchbacks begin. We reached the two mile point first and I wanted to keep going to see if there was any view at all. We did and there wasn’t. We turned around and headed back to the trailhead. Later we learned that the views start at 2.9 miles. Oh well.

A panoramic view from the East Rim Trail

Back at the car, we decided to go try to find shirts at the Visitor Center. We headed West through the park to the Visitor Center. The parking lot was Christmas-shopping-at-the-mall crazy. Every time a spot opened, there were three of four cars trying to get it. I dropped Susan off close to the Visitor Center entrance and slowly drove around the lot. On my second lap, I found an empty 15 minute spot, pulled in, and set the timer on my watch. Tick tock, the minutes went by. With five minutes left, I saw Susan walking toward me with bag in hand. She did it!

With our immediate goals achieved, we headed to Springdale to prepare for our next goals. First, we needed a place to park. Preferably, it would be free and have a picnic table nearby. After driving all the way through town, we found a small park with two hour free parking and picnic tables along the Virgin River. Perfect. Second, we needed to check in with Southwest Airlines to get our boarding position set. We had over an hour before the window opened, so we pulled out the cooler and had lunch. Keeping with the theme of this trip, the bees arrived as soon as the food came out. For some reason, the bees were highly attracted to Andrew and he ran for cover. With him out of the way, they started harassing me, so I too had to run for cover.

After lunch, we still had a bit of time before the Southwest check in window opened. We found a nice shady spot in the grass and relaxed. We discussed what else we wanted to do today and Las Vegas came up. We thought about going back to the condo, packing, and spending the night in Las Vegas. We looked into prices and decided that it wasn’t worth it. Las Vegas taxes are outrageous.

The check in window opened and I entered my details into the Southwest app. Once again, we got three positions in boarding group A. Nice.

Since we were in Springdale and we were finished with lunch and we weren’t in a hurry, we decided we needed ice cream. Google gave us two choices and I chose one. We headed back into town and found the market that Google suggested. Andrew and I got a two scoop bowl of Orange Cream, then found a seat outside in the shade. At the next table, a guy was on a conference call on his laptop. I had forgotten that it was Friday and not everyone is on vacation. I thought it odd that he was not using a headset, so everyone could hear the full conversation. And even more odd was that he had a six pack of beer on the table and was working on one during the call. Interesting.

After the ice cream was gone, we headed back through Zion one final time. I absorbed as much as I possibly could, knowing that I may never get back to this park again (although I hope I do).

A view of the Checkerboard Mesa

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