We arrived at Zion Canyon Campground on September 11, 2023 for four nights. The location was perfect! Only 1/2 mile from the park entrance and visitor center! Great views.
How nice it was to have a pull-thru site with a large shade tree and where NO ONE can park on our passenger side. Really made for patio privacy. 🙂
We drove in, parked at the visitor center and rode the free shuttle all the way to the last stop (#9. This gave us a better idea of how to plan our time here. You HAVE to use the free shuttles – or bike the main road in and out of the park from late May through November. NO private vehicles are permitted beyond the South Campground inside the National Park during the “open season”. The shuttle driver provides interesting information along the way.
The views were amazing along the Scenic Drive. (Private vehicles are not permitted to drive here.)
Before we got back on a return shuttle…
Along the drive back to the visitor center/parking lot, we saw some wild turkeys. The driver announced them as he waited for several crossing in front of the shuttle.
I unexpectedly saw a mule deer – buck grazing fairly close to the road, but we went past it before I could get a picture.
September 12: Rained most of the day.
September 13
We’ve seen several YouTube videos of hiking The Narrows. It looks so cool, so that was on our plan while here. Today, we went to Zion Adventures to get outfitted for the wet hike, but it was too late in the day to safely miss the possibility of flash floods. You definitely do NOT want to get caught in the Narrows at the time of a flash flood, and they happen too often and too fast. We will definitely listen to the advice of the employees here!
Angel’s Landing was not even a consideration!
Instead we decided to do the Emerald Pools hike today and check the forecast later for the Narrows on Thursday.
Awesome hike: waterfalls, and beautiful views…
… horses (although not wild).
Mule deer…
wild turkeys…
Zion Adventures Check-in…We were advised not to make the hike tomorrow. The water is still very murky/muddy and with a fairly strong current. The river bottom is full of large rocks, so hiking without being able to know where best to step did not seem fun or safe. I don’t need a higher probability of twisting an ankle, or worse. The water would be waist high near the starting part where you enter the hike in the water. IF we were adamant on going they said to be OUT of the water by 11. We didn’t realize this is still part of their “monsoon” season. Storms come up very quickly without warning. As much as we’d love the experience of the Narrows at least to the “fork”, we reminded each other that we aren’t as young as we think at times. LOL The flash floods that occur are not to be downplayed even for young, strong athletic people!
After dinner, Barry and I took a drive in the Jeep up into the park to head east through THE tunnel! This is the tunnel that if we wanted to drive Vinny through, we’d have to pay $15 since a park ranger on the far side has to stop the westbound oncoming traffic to allow us to drive down the middle of both lanes.
The views continued to be amazing! The sunshine on the red rock was stunning.
The tunnel…It was a bit longer than I expected, but it had a couple large cutout window areas that gave a brief, but awesome view (for the passengers). If there was no oncoming traffic, I tried to veer over in hopes the dash cam might pick part of the view up. (No, I wasn’t distracted LOL) No bikes or pedestrians are permitted in the tunnel!
View of one of the “windows” from the outside.
After exiting the tunnel we saw a lot of cars parked, so we found a spot and pulled over. We walked back towards the tunnel. OMG. It’s BIGHORN SHEEP…cool! And not just one! We watched them for quite a while.
We thought we might stay for the sunset up on top a short hike, but that would still be a couple more hours, so we headed back. The ranger on the east side asked us to let the ranger on the west side know that we were the last car! Hmmm…there must be a big rig wanting to come through! With NO one behind us, we could stop momentarily at the window in the tunnel. Barry made me stop at both of the large open windows so he could jump out and take a “quick” picture! Well, I guess it was quick – for him. 🙂 But the views were pretty spectacular!!
We enjoyed a nice quiet evening with our propane fire pit out on our patio. Love the privacy of our campsite!
Sept 14
We made today a biking day. Part of me still was curious if we could do the Narrows today, BUT common sense and seeing how muddy the water was running along part of the campground helped accept our decision of postponing that hike till another visit.
We met Stu. We were stopped to look at something and he stopped to make sure we were OK. We talked with him for a few minutes. Great, friendly guy. We got a fast clip of him riding.
He suggested we bike a trail or two in Zion instead of heading to the town of Silverdale. So we headed back towards Zion to have lunch somewhere and shop for a t-shirt.
Little park right off the main road:
This guy was fun to watch…what balance and control!
Jack’s Grill was recommended so that’s where we went, and we had a nice quiet table. Sandwich was good. The sides were OK.
Our waiter recommended the connected gift shop for t-shirts. When we came out from the gift shop, we noticed a definite drop in temperature. As we pedaled towards the second place the waiter suggested, we could see the storm up ahead. It was moving towards us from Zion NP. We pedaled as fast as we could to get back to Vinny. The wind was quite strong at times. We made it! We quickly locked up our bikes and put our cover over them. So much for biking any park trail. OK—now I’m really glad we didn’t try to do the Narrows today!
When the rain storm was over, we went back out, but in the Jeep to checkout a few retail places took more pictures at the Zion National Park marker, and then called it a day.
We plan to return to Zion within the next couple years in hopes to do some of the Narrows hike weather permitting. We’ve really enjoyed time here.
Tomorrow, we head to Las Vegas.
Hi! I was able to hike The Narrows with a group a few weeks after you visited. The water was high and pretty swift. I don’t quite reach 5 feet tall these days so I had to wear a dry suit instead of waders. I definitely recommend wearing gear from an outfitter and having a pole for balance. I saw some people wearing just shorts, a t-shirt, and Keds-like sneakers: not smart and they got very cold. There are lots of big rocks underfoot and the bottom has varying levels. We were guided to walk in switchback fashion. It was a great experience although I’m not sure it would be worth it to return just for that. I enjoy your blog. Thanks! Sue (Pierce) Green