Zion National Park

In… Utah?

Yes! Utah! The owners of my current student housing project hail from Provo (Brigham Young University) in Utah, so the state was on my mind. After visiting the incredible national parks near me in Nevada and California, I’d discovered another park to visit: Zion National Park. I leave this work project soon, so this would be my last weekend adventure before vacation on the east coast. Choosing between the Grand Canyon, Sequoia, Bryce Canyon, Area 51, and Zion… it was a tough choice, but in the end, I decided on Zion because the trip would take me to a new state. Utah, ahoy.

With my aggressive early bed/early rise habits, I usually like to be settled into a hotel before dark. But on this journey, I left Las Vegas as the sun was setting. Escaping the city took a long time – I feel secure saying everyone was probably driving drunk on this Saturday night. Then it was highway time for 129 miles. Somewhere along the way I crossed into Mountain Standard Time: another first for me! The road had some challenging curves along the way, so I knew we must be going through mountains, even though I couldn’t see them fully in the traffic lights – just pale, bare bulges looming out of the dark. Finally, I arrived in Hurricane, Utah and spent the night in a modest Motel 8 full of European tourists.

The next morning I woke up late because I’d lost an hour moving from Pacific to Mountain time. I hadn’t been chasing the sunrise, though, so I didn’t mind and had a waffle with really bad coffee in the motel lobby. The sun was out on the hills around Hurricane. The motel had a pool and two elderly lady vacationers were taking a dip in the blue water, making it look great. I packed up quickly, checked out, and headed the 35 minutes to Zion National Park.

Not far over the border of Nevada into Utah, Zion is another national park full of staggering, massive rock formations. When someone displayed images of the park at the world fair in St. Louis one year long ago, no one believed the place could be real. Before long, the two lane roads through the park were choked with traffic. The problem worsened until the park instituted a no-car rule and a shuttle system to carry visitors through the park. When I arrived, cars parked outside the park entrance already but the ranger waved me on through to try and find a place inside. Sure enough, I slid my little compact car in between two jeeps beside the campsite.

The best part of the day was how the sunlight filtered through the leaves, fresh and clear with the faintest hint of fall. The campsite looked fresh, cheerful, and quiet. Giant peaks towered over the site. I found the shuttle stop and took off to explore the park.