| Page Views: 5,077 Last Visit to Zion National Park: March, 2007 | Zion National Park, One of My Favorites by KimberlyAnn - last update: May 5, 2007 |
Zion Park has spectacular sandstone cliffs and canyon landscapes in which you can bicycle, hike, horseback ride, or take a guided tram tour. You may also do technical climbs if you are an experienced mountain climber. You will see sheer and colorful cliffs that tower above you as you explore this narrow canyon. A small river, looking more like a creek flows along the bottom of the canyon. The name "Zion" means a place of peace and refuge. This sanctuary with over 146,000 acres of cliffs, canyons, varied plant and animal life, and breath taking beauty is well named. The entrance town of Springdale is a cute little tourist town nestled right up to the gate of the park.
We have visited Zion National Park twice, and enjoyed it both times. The journal entries below are from our first visit to the park. |
Journal entry: Sunday, Feb. 7, 1999 I've found my Nirvana, my Valhalla, my husband will have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming as I clutch the rocks with my finger tips. Springdale is this tiny little berg without any decent shopping, or even a decent grocery store, yet if I had the money, I would buy some hill top property and build a dome or log home with windows - windows everywhere. I'm in love----with the scenery, the climate, and the vegetation. You are surrounded closely with towering, rugged, rocky mountain peaks, and you sit on the gate to Zion National Park, which has a breath taking beautiful cliff and canyon landscape. The cliffs are sheer and colorful, and the canyon is narrow and deep with walls towering 2,000 to 3,000 feet above you. When I look up I am filled with a sense of awe and wonder. There are large cacti here as well as tall ornamental wheat like grass and green moss. Today it was in the high 40`s and the air smelled fresh and earth like. Mule deer can be viewed close at hand both in the village, as well as in the park. |
| Detail Close-up of Falls In the Emerald Pool Area |
|  | Journal entry: Thursday, February 11, 1999 After lunch today we drove to Emerald Pool and hiked for 2 2/3 miles up to Middle Emerald Pools, then on up to the upper pool. Here there was a thin ribbon waterfall cascading over the high cliff. Its spray caused ice cycles to form along the canyon walls as well as on the bushes below the falls. The pool at the upper point was also frozen. As we stood gazing upward at the falls a small section of ice let go and came hurling with a rumbling crash to the floor below. We not only heard the booming, echoing crash as it hit, smashing into a cloud of ice shards, but we could hear the rushing air as it plunged to the ground below. After this hike we drove to the end of the scenic road to walk up toward the narrows, but after walking about a mile we found the route was closed due to falling ice. Having recently experienced falling ice we could understand the closure. We did, however, see nice views along the section we were able to walk. We decided to return to Emerald Pool as we had not seen the lower pool because the loop trail we took to the left was closed beyond the middle and upper pools so we had to retrace our steps after seeing these pools earlier in the day. We could, however, hike to the lower pool if we took the right hand leg of the loop, because the trail was closed just after the pool we wanted to visit. It was only a short 2/3 of a mile walk and we enjoyed seeing this lovely pool with its three narrow waterfalls. When we returned to the campground I took a leisurely bike ride along the Pa'rus Trail. The scenery here is beautiful, and the red and yellow colors of the cliffs above my head added to the scenic ride. |
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| Pros: | "Spectacular views, wonderful places to hike." | | Cons: | "Can be very crowded during the prime season." |
KimberlyAnn's Zion National Park Travel Tips
 Comments for KimberlyAnn about Zion National Park | | | | |
BruceDunning Tue Jun 23, 2009 23:08 UTC
I need this type of advise to know what I am comfortable in hiking. Great job of explanations and trail pics. | staindesign Tue Oct 16, 2007 00:36 UTC
I really enjoyed your zion pages, I am planning a trip there next year with my family. Your pages made me really excited to get there! By the way, did you ever notice any place to rent RVs? | JudyinPA Tue May 15, 2007 19:23 UTC
Ditto on my 05 comment. This time only looking at the campground info. Copied the emails for a reference. Hope we can meet up on an RV trip. | travelgourmet Sun Apr 15, 2007 00:12 UTC
Going to Bryce and Zion in early June. Will use your tips to help out. I trust there are buffalo burgers at Majestic View Lodge. |
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