Zion National Park

Sept 24    Lone Rock Beach - Zion National Park,Utah    150 miles     2 1/2 hours

Loop B Site #38

We made our way to Zion National Park and got settled into our campsite. We're at the Watchman Campground located inside the park. Pretty nice here, $18 per nite with electric. We could book only 1 nite here, need to check tomorrow morning if we're able to extend our stay.






This afternoon we did a pretty good hike. We went 1 mile on the Kayenta Trail, continued to the Middle Emerald Pool, then down to the Lower Emerald Pool. This whole hike was about 2.1 miles. Little bit strenuous, along the cliff. We also walked from our campground to the visitor's center to catch the shuttle so we went about 3 miles today. Joe and I had to take Motrin tonight....I guess we overdid it on the hike.

The Kayenta trail was pretty strenuous

Sept 25

We got going pretty early this morning because we had to go to the other campground in Zion and see if we could get a camp site for tonight.  South Campground is first come, first serve. It's dry camping for $16 per night. We got there around 830am and was lucky enough to get site #53. This place is pretty crazy in the morning, everybody trolling around for a site.

A visitor near our camp site

 After getting settled in our new site, we went for a

hike on the Riverside Walk. A 2.2 mile paved trail that follows the Virgin River along the bottom of a narrow canyon. At the end of this hike, it runs into a harder hike called The Narrows. This hike crosses the river a few times so your shoes get wet .........  we just turned around.

Hikers on the Narrows Trail

Nice scenery on our hike

 On the way back, we stopped and took our shoes off and soaked our feet in the river. The water was pretty chilly but it felt so good.

In the late afternoon we took a drive on the Zion - Mt Carmel Hwy. The road travels up steep switchbacks for 12 miles, through the historic Zion - Mt Carmel tunnel, and emerges on the south side of the park. Large vehicles are escorted through the tunnel and you need to pay $15. This was a real nice drive, we both enjoyed it.

Approaching the tunnel

South side of Zion