ZION (east).
Day 154 – Beginning of the sixth month of this trip. Six months, really?! It’s hard to believe. Today we’ll explore the other road-accessible parts of Zion National Park. Colder out though, we don’t know if this is a change back to the normal winter conditions we’ve heard are lacking. 26 degrees this morning at 8:15, crisp & cold with a breeze, full sun. I’d thought that this was a holiday weekend, but that’s next weekend. The campers are heading out already this morning & the campground is about half full again.
We left at 10:30 for the “Zion Canyon Scenic Drive”, heading east on the 9, then turning north at the sign for the drive. For all year except the winter season, this road is closed to traffic and the only way to take this drive is by Park shuttle bus which stops to let people on and off at each trailhead and attraction. During the winter, the shuttle buses don’t operate and the road is open to the public. This is the time to see it. Even though it was a cold day off-season, the road was lined with parked cars at most of the more popular stops. We’re sure in the summer this road would be impossible to traverse if it was open to cars. We stopped often to take pictures. It was incredibly beautiful.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
Returning to the 9, we continued east on the winding canyon road (Zion-Mt. Carmel Highway) through unbelievably scenic country. Part of the drive was around a tall rocky mountain on switchbacks, then through a long tunnel built through the mountain. Incredibly, when they constructed this tunnel, they cut windows through the sandstone so that at times, light shone thru and you could see the towering canyons outside the tunnel road. We took this road to the east entrance to the Park, turned around and drove back to the campground.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
We put some gear up from the car and then drove into Springdale for a late lunch and to pick up some supplies from the local store. Lunch was at “Whiptail Grille” and it was fabulous. We ate outside on the patio with the red canyons all around us. The sunshine helped to keep us warm from the light wind that was blowing. We had chips, salsa, and guacamole to start with, then split two entrees: the Spaghetti Squash Enchiladas with side salad and black beans, and the Loaded Shrimp Vegetable Burrito with side salad and black beans. We shopped for our supplies and drove back to the RV, sat outside for an hour or so, and then it was getting too cold so we came in to warm up. The high today was 56 degrees, colder than it has been. Tomorrow morning we leave for Bryce National Park, our next stop hopefully, but it can be treacherous in snow and ice because it’s about 3,000 feet higher in elevation than Zion. And the forecast now is calling for snow tomorrow. The weather here is quite changeable so we’ll see tomorrow morning when we get up whether we can still go to Bryce. Or not. End of Week 22, Trip #3.