Many people do not realize this but Zion National Park can be divided into four sections Zion Canyon (the main hub), The Narrows, Kolob Canyons, and the Kolob Terrace/East Zion. We started our second day of Zion visiting the main hub (Zion Canyon) entering from the East side via the town of Springdale. Zion National park is the second most visited US National Park with approximately 4.9 million visits per year and we happened to visit on an extremely busy day. As soon as we arrived in Springdale we saw signs warning us the parking at the visitor center was full and that we should park in Springdale and catch a bus. We found a parking spot fairly quickly, although be expected to pay. Fortunately they have phone apps that make it seamless and we were able to get on a bus right away. We then had a line to get into the park and then another line to get on another bus within the park. I do have to give the NPS credit as those buses arrived one after another and they filled them up as quickly as they could! A group of people definitely sat down and figured out how to make the system efficient!
A couple notes to everyone.
- Pay for your pass ahead of time, I recommend getting the America the Beautiful Pass. There were numerous times we would either be in a line of people or cars where the person in front of us needed several minutes to complete their transactions whereas we were through in seconds. I have been to enough parks to know have my pass and driver's license pulled out and I just hand it over as soon as my window is rolled down!
- Get to the parks early! Zion was the only park where even though we were early, did we have to wait because of crowds. Obviously when I go to Zion again (at least the main hub) I will either stay at the Lodge within the park or the town of Springdale.
- If you are going to bike get to know the rules! At Zion the buses have the right away, you need to move out of the way. I lost count of the number of times the bus driver had to ask bikers to move out of the way!
The main thing we wanted to do on this trip was to hike the Narrows, which is a hike in the Virgin river within a slot canyon. There are two ways to hike the narrows. The top down hike which is often a two day commitment and requires a permit or the top down, which is what we did, which is a 5-9.4 miles round trip. You start at the Temple of Sinawava, hike one mile to the river, and then hike as far as you desire. We hiked just past Mystery Falls which put us at about the 5 miles round trip mark.
I do wish we would have had more time, perhaps if we had visited on a less busy day or stayed in the park, we could have made it further but regardless it was a great experience.
This is a hike you had better be prepared for! At minimum you should do the following. You can rent gear from outfitters, in the area, I prefer to buy my own gear since we all have extra wide feet and have found it challenging to find appropriate footwear when renting (size 13 width 4E) so I prefer to know I have shoes/socks that will fit!
- Neoprene Socks - The water is cold, even in the summer, remember places like Cedar Breaks National Monument, with an elevation of 10,000 feet, are less than a hours drive away!
- Wool socks - unfortunately your feet, rubbing against neoprene, is likely going to cause friction blisters. However, you will want to use wool as it can still trap heat even when wet!
- Hiking Poles - like most rivers the river bed is an endless array of rocks! It is just wise to have something to help you keep your stability, more so on this hike than any other you will take in Utah's National Parks and Monuments!
- Toe closed shoes, preferably hiking boots. Some of those rocks can be small, best to keep those away from your feet.
To view photos of Zion National Park click here.
The NPS site can be found by clicking here.
If I could go back in time and make a change it would be to find a way to have more time to spend here!