Happy Monday Everyone! The blog is about two weeks behind -- and I'm really sorry about that but lets catch up!
Cedar City was so good to us that we really had a hard time leaving! We woke up the third morning there and had to force ourselves to get out of town and move on. The weather that day was kind of rough and we went back and forth about whether or not we would even enjoy Zion if we went. I told Blake I didn't care and he could just pick a direction and go and I wouldn't care. It was mostly true... even though I was a little disappointed when he turned off the highway towards it. It didn't take me long to get over it though because its beyond gorgeous.
When you're driving towards the park you have about 30 miles been I15 and the park entrance. There are several little towns along the way that have really adorable houses and I wanted to take pictures of all of them.
The Park and the town of Springdale have a pretty cool relationship and I'm interested to see if that's pretty common with other National Parks. The town is just on the outside of the park entrance and they have a lot of pretty resorts and bed and breakfasts but it just seems like a really charming little place. Along the main street there are several parking lots and bus stops that will take you through town and even to the visitors center. The park no longer allows for personal vehicles to drive to a few of the main attractions. There are about 7 or 8 places in the park that most people try to see and it can get really crowded so they have limited transportation to those sites to just the shuttle bus. You can take the shuttle from the visitors center and get off wherever you would like and then when you're done with that hike or looking around you just just hop back on and go to the next one.
I think we were there at almost the perfect time of year. We didn't plan ahead at all for this trip and just got really lucky but there were no lines - we were able to camp easily - and it was cool enough that it was safe to have the dogs there in the RV so we were able to do some hikes without them.
Sorry about some of the maybe boring details but they are good to know if you want to go there yourself! Which you should because it's amazing. Last tid bit -- you can buy a one time pass that's good or 7 days for $30 or you can buy a year long pass to ANY National Park for $80! If you buy the pass you get a $10 discount on camp grounds in the park making them just $10 a night! Okay - thats all on that.
Blake and I got there and needed a little break from the car so we went on a walk with the dogs on the only pet friendly trail in the park. I was expecting it to be lame or at least really busy since it was the only pet friendly options but it wasn't at all. It was about a 4 mile walk and it just kept getting prettier and prettier. It was a nice little intro to the park. We spent the rest of the afternoon looking for a camp site and we even broke out the moped to cruise into town! It's coming in so handy already! We were in search of wine honestly... but I forgot that it's Utah and it's not nearly as easy to find booze there - not to mention that it was a Sunday and they don't sell liquor on Sundays.
Our campsite was right on the river and after walking around and talking to a few people we decided to stay multiple days and do some of the more exciting hikes. If you're there you should definitely so Angels Landing or The Narrows. We hiked to the Emerald Pools. Thats where the waterfall picture was taken. We took a little picnic and ate towards the end of the hike at the highest pool.
We were both a little sad that we didn't do any of the larger hikes but we couldn't be away from the RV that long. That was the first time we had left the dogs and there was a pretty good chance they spent the whole three hours barking their heads off. It was beautiful though and I don't think you can go wrong with any of the hikes or things you choose to see. Even though it was off season it was still busy. The trail was pretty heavily populated for 80% of our hike.
If you're looking for a more challenging or individual experience they have a lot of guide maps and people around the park that seemed really helpful. I'm a little too much of a chicken to do very much back country stuff. I'm hoping to become a little braver over the next few months and maybe I won't pee my pants at the thought of bears. We actually met a really cool woman who is a wildlife educator at Yellowstone National Park. She was in Zion doing some hiking alone and I thought she was pretty inspiring. She invited me to a women's only fly fishing trip in Yellowstone in the fall and I think I just might go!
We left Zion on Tuesday and just like Cedar City it was tough to leave. We're really lucky to be able to do this - we have already had so much fun and I'm now even more excited for other National Parks. We had to start making the trek to San Diego and thought it would take us a few days with a stop in Vegas.
Turns out Vegas is mostly only fun when you step off of an air conditioned plane - immediately grab a drink - head to the pool and the gamble away a reasonable amount of money. It's not as nice with two dogs - a hot dirt parking lot and no drinks. So we moved right along and got into San Diego almost two weeks ago now!
I'll be back really soon with a full recap of our time here but for now thats all! Seriously, If you can make it to Zion you should. I know its not as glamorous as an island vacay but it's amazing and totally worth it - Have a great week everyone!!
Our campsite was right on the river and after walking around and talking to a few people we decided to stay multiple days and do some of the more exciting hikes. If you're there you should definitely so Angels Landing or The Narrows. We hiked to the Emerald Pools. Thats where the waterfall picture was taken. We took a little picnic and ate towards the end of the hike at the highest pool.
We were both a little sad that we didn't do any of the larger hikes but we couldn't be away from the RV that long. That was the first time we had left the dogs and there was a pretty good chance they spent the whole three hours barking their heads off. It was beautiful though and I don't think you can go wrong with any of the hikes or things you choose to see. Even though it was off season it was still busy. The trail was pretty heavily populated for 80% of our hike.
If you're looking for a more challenging or individual experience they have a lot of guide maps and people around the park that seemed really helpful. I'm a little too much of a chicken to do very much back country stuff. I'm hoping to become a little braver over the next few months and maybe I won't pee my pants at the thought of bears. We actually met a really cool woman who is a wildlife educator at Yellowstone National Park. She was in Zion doing some hiking alone and I thought she was pretty inspiring. She invited me to a women's only fly fishing trip in Yellowstone in the fall and I think I just might go!
We left Zion on Tuesday and just like Cedar City it was tough to leave. We're really lucky to be able to do this - we have already had so much fun and I'm now even more excited for other National Parks. We had to start making the trek to San Diego and thought it would take us a few days with a stop in Vegas.
Turns out Vegas is mostly only fun when you step off of an air conditioned plane - immediately grab a drink - head to the pool and the gamble away a reasonable amount of money. It's not as nice with two dogs - a hot dirt parking lot and no drinks. So we moved right along and got into San Diego almost two weeks ago now!
I'll be back really soon with a full recap of our time here but for now thats all! Seriously, If you can make it to Zion you should. I know its not as glamorous as an island vacay but it's amazing and totally worth it - Have a great week everyone!!
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