· exploring · national park · Zion NP
We visited Zion National Park in Utah. A couple of times, actually. For this first visit, we drove through the park, then took shuttle buses along the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive (cars are not allowed along that road most of the year).
The road changes color as you enter the park:
Zion sign:
Interesting rock patterns:
A short tunnel:
The second tunnel is 1.1 miles long, with no lights inside, other than a few windows into the canyon:
A glimpse of the canyon out one of the windows as we pass by:
We stopped for lunch just outside the park:
Then walked to the visitor center:
Unusual to have a walk-through entrance station (in addition to the usual drive-through one):
The visitor center:
We don’t have to pay to enter each of the parks, thanks to our America the Beautiful annual pass, but we more than make up for that in buying postcards and other goodies at the park stores:
On the shuttle bus:
Hey look, more rocks:
River:
Posing rock squirrel:
We took shuttle buses back down the canyon, getting off several times:
We opted to walk along a trail between two shuttle stops:
There is a second part of Zion National Park: Kolob Canyons. We drove up there:
We enjoyed our visit to Zion, and as mentioned, we went back a second time. Stay tuned for another post about that.