Winnebago Voyage: Zion

We spent the whole day in Zion. It wasn’t nearly as crowded as when we drove through on Saturday. We drove directly to the Visitor Center and took a shuttle to the end of Zion Canyon Scenic Drive. They have a narration playing in the busses to tell you about the surroundings. There are lots of busses, so you never have to wait in one spot for longer than a few minutes. Apparently, people who are staying at the lodge are given a pass to drive that far, but the rest of the road is completely clear except for the shuttles. It’s a really good system.

At the end of the scenic drive is the 2 mile Riverside Walk, which is paved and follows the Virgin River. At the end of that walk is the entrance to the Narrows, which is the trail that goes on into the canyon as it narrows, and you have to walk in the river. It had just rained, so even at the beginning the water was calf-deep. Obviously, we stopped there!

We picked up the shuttle and got off at Weeping Rock, which is a .4 mile, steep hike to a rock that drips water and you walk underneath. From there you can see Angels Landing which is the 5.4 mile hike to the top.

We got back on the bus and got off at the Grotto. We were going to take the walk from there to the Lodge, but the trail was closed, so we took the shuttle to the Lodge. We walked around it for a little bit and then took the shuttle back to our car to get lunch.

We rode back on the shuttle to take the Emerald Pools Trails. They are very rocky and some parts are pretty steep. There’s one place where there are really steep rock stairs, which are one-way, and they almost need traffic control at each end! We hiked up to the lower and middle falls, but didn’t go all the way to the upper falls. On the way back down, we took the 1 mile hike on the Kayenta Trail which goes back to the Grotto and a shuttle stop.

One more shuttle stop was at the Court of the Patriarchs, which has a very short climb to its overlook. We then returned to the Visitor Center for our drive back on highway 9 to our campground. We had to wait about 15 minutes for the drive through the tunnel since there were busses and RV’s going through it.