VANtastic Vacation: Marching on to Zion, Beautiful, Beautiful Zion!

Following the night of nearly freezing to death (I'm exagerating, but it was super cold!) we got up and headed to Bryce Canyon National Park. This canyon was very unique. The formations are called hoodoos and they were all over the place. A hoodoo is what is left standing after an arch erodes enough to only leave a pillar standing. These hoodoos were amazing to look at.

We took a short loop through the Queens Garden and the Navajo Trail, around 3 or 4 miles total. The walk was fantastic. We returned to the lodge at the trail head and made some sandwiches and sat on the deck for lunch. It was a really nice day in the sunshine. After lunch, we jumped back in the van and headed towards Zion National Park.

Zion was only 80 miles or so from Bryce Canyon. The drive was gorgeous, as usual for out here. Deep red rocks stand right next to brilliant white. And the size is indescribable. They are thought to be the largest sandstone cliffs in the world, one of them is 3800 feet tall! We drove down the switchbacks to the bottom of the canyon, driving slow and barely watching the road. With it But we were not ready for seeing Zion. I had never heard of Zion before we planned our trip. I'm not sure how this could be after pulling into the park. The sandstone cliffs are amazing. Being the weekend, we were too late to get a campsite for the weekend in the park. Disappointed, we headed out of the south entrance to find the nearest campsite. Luckily, it was within a mile. So we picked our spot and set up camp.

We quickly headed back into the park to do some hiking. We took the shuttle bus to one of the stops and headed up the emerald pools trail. This short hike had some spectacular views. The trail takes you behind two waterfalls that pour into the pools below. It was fabulous. We headed back to camp for a late dinner of grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and went to bed.

The next morning (Friday) we slept in. It was much needed after the night I laid awake shivering at Bryce Canyon. We got up, and headed back to the shuttle bus to a different trail. This trail was called Hidden Canyon trail. It was a steep climb up to a slot canyon. We walked at least a half mile into the canyon until we were stopped by a huge pile of boulders. The hike was amazing. The sandstone erodes into sand, of course. But the sand on the sandstone makes the rocks very slick. There were some cliff edges that had chains attached which we were thankful for. The canyon itself was great to see. The walls were very high and steep, and at places only 10 feet wide or so. some spots of the walls had ferns growing on them.

After taking in the scenerey for a while we headed back. While making our late lunch it started raining. Seems like a great time for a nap, right? So we slept an hour or two and then got up for the evening. The shuttles have space for bikes, so we took our bikes and went to the last stop at the top of the canyon. We jumped on the bikes and headed downhill. The whole trip was around 9 miles long. It was an hour or so of just sitting on the bike, letting gravity work its magic and watching the enormous cliffs pass us by. This was a totally different style of mountain biking, but a lot of fun.