10/11/19 - 10/12/19 - Ogden,UT to Fillmore, UT (178 miles) stayed one night at Wagons West RV Park, $36.00
10/12/19 to 10/15/19 - Fillmore, UT to Leeds, UT (145 miles) stayed 3 nights at Leeds RV and Motel, $35/night.
Disneyland in the Desert
We were happy to find a tiny RV park about 30 minutes from Zion National Park to use as a base camp. There are closer options, and camping in the park, but you have to book much earlier in the year. Zion is the fourth most visited National Park with over 4 million visitors each year. As a matter of fact, we’re hitting number one, two and four on this trip - the Great Smoky Mountains with over 11million, the Grand Canyon with over 6 million, and this one. As you can imagine, the lines to get in and park are quite long. Zion doesn’t allow any cars past the museum, and highly suggests you park in the town just outside the park and ride the free shuttle in if you arrive after 10am. What they don’t tell you is that you can pay up to $30 to park.
We parked inside near the Visitors Center after circling the parking lot for some time, and queued up for the shuttle that takes you on a 45 minute loop to nine stops around the park. It was just like Disney, working our way through turnstiles and switchbacks and interesting people-watching. There were many foreign languages spoken and after about 30 minutes, we got on a bus.
The park is very accessible with many paved walking trails. The buses had large picture windows and sky lights across the roof, so you can see quite a lot from the bus. One stop, Weeping Rock, was completely closed, because they had a recent rock slide that made the trails and stop unusable. But people were lined up to get their timed passes to climb Angels Landing, a very narrow ridge across the top of the left side of the canyon. And others rented waterproof boots, waders and walking sticks to walk The Narrows, where the canyon gets very narrow, of course. It’s something like a slot canyon, and is prone to flash floods. The entire walk is in the river, which can be very cold, even in the summer.
We decided to ride the whole loop first, then get off at places that looked interesting. We had packed a lunch, so got off near the river and walked a while on a trail, until we found a quiet spot where we could hear the river. Then, we got back on, and drove all the way to the last stop and walked the trail until it reached the water at the Narrows. I’m not a fan of cold or wet, so we turned back.
The canyon is beautiful. You can really see how the tectonic plates were thrust up at odd angles, and the layers of multi-colored sedimentary rock that have been exposed by wind and rain. I was surprised at how small the park is, but was impressed by the organization and cleanliness. Well done NPS. We’re looking forward to the Grand Canyon.
We were happy to find a tiny RV park about 30 minutes from Zion National Park to use as a base camp. There are closer options, and camping in the park, but you have to book much earlier in the year. Zion is the fourth most visited National Park with over 4 million visitors each year. As a matter of fact, we’re hitting number one, two and four on this trip - the Great Smoky Mountains with over 11million, the Grand Canyon with over 6 million, and this one. As you can imagine, the lines to get in and park are quite long. Zion doesn’t allow any cars past the museum, and highly suggests you park in the town just outside the park and ride the free shuttle in if you arrive after 10am. What they don’t tell you is that you can pay up to $30 to park.
We parked inside near the Visitors Center after circling the parking lot for some time, and queued up for the shuttle that takes you on a 45 minute loop to nine stops around the park. It was just like Disney, working our way through turnstiles and switchbacks and interesting people-watching. There were many foreign languages spoken and after about 30 minutes, we got on a bus.
The park is very accessible with many paved walking trails. The buses had large picture windows and sky lights across the roof, so you can see quite a lot from the bus. One stop, Weeping Rock, was completely closed, because they had a recent rock slide that made the trails and stop unusable. But people were lined up to get their timed passes to climb Angels Landing, a very narrow ridge across the top of the left side of the canyon. And others rented waterproof boots, waders and walking sticks to walk The Narrows, where the canyon gets very narrow, of course. It’s something like a slot canyon, and is prone to flash floods. The entire walk is in the river, which can be very cold, even in the summer.
We decided to ride the whole loop first, then get off at places that looked interesting. We had packed a lunch, so got off near the river and walked a while on a trail, until we found a quiet spot where we could hear the river. Then, we got back on, and drove all the way to the last stop and walked the trail until it reached the water at the Narrows. I’m not a fan of cold or wet, so we turned back.
The canyon is beautiful. You can really see how the tectonic plates were thrust up at odd angles, and the layers of multi-colored sedimentary rock that have been exposed by wind and rain. I was surprised at how small the park is, but was impressed by the organization and cleanliness. Well done NPS. We’re looking forward to the Grand Canyon.
