Southwest USA Trip - September 2015: Day 8 - Cedar City, UT to Zion National Park and Kanab, UT

Boy what a day today has been. Started out with a quick scrambled egg and sausage breakfast at my hotel which was part of the rate. Grabbed some coffee to go and hit the road for Zion National Park.

The drive was only a couple hours at most but the scenery once again just made time fly and the ride a really enjoyable one. I will admit that I'm tired after just over a week of going day after day, but it's not exhaustion. It's just waking up tired and in need of some coffee. And then as soon as I'm in the car and hitting the road and seeing the scenery and heading to another fantastic destination, I forget all about feeling tired. Hell, I'll have plenty of time for sleep next week after I get home! So for right now, I'll continue to run on adrenaline if necessary.

As I started to get closer to Zion National Park and the town of Springdale, UT, man did the drive get pretty. However, as I got closer to the entrance to Zion, I saw a sign that said "road closed due to rock slide". You can see the sign in one of my pictures below as I was approaching the Zion park entrance. When I got up there, they told us that there was a huge rock slide last night that completely closed off one of the roads. And as it turned out, that was the same road that I was then expecting to take when leaving Zion and heading to Kanab tonight. But the news wasn't all bad. At least the park was still open and the shuttle buses were still running and taking visitors to all the stops. Just that no one could access the Route 9 road which apparently is a very heavily traveled road. They said some of the boulders blocking the road were the size of semi trucks and they were working to have the road re-opened hopefully by later tonight.

The way Zion Park works is you enter the park and then you park your cars at the Visitor Center. From the Visitor Center, they have shuttle buses that take you all the way down the scenic drive of the park to the very end and then come back again to the Visitor Center. Along the way are multiple stops, each with different views and trails ranging from easy to difficult that you can explore on your own. When your ready, you head back to the shuttle stop where you either take the shuttle moving further into the park or the shuttle that is heading back towards the Visitor Center. So there are many, many opportunities to hike trails and go as far back as you want and do your own discovering. And that's exactly what I've been doing this trip. Just taking different paths and hiking different trails and exploring on my own. Unfortunately that the only way to get to the greatest views and ultimately capture the best scenes. But its been so worth it!

So instead of trying to separate out and group everything from this set of pictures, since everything here is from my full day at Zion, I'm just posting them without too much explanation. Other than separating those captured as I drove to Zion and then those after I left Zion, everything else is from within the park.

I know I've been saying this about each of my destinations, and each park has many great things about them. But Zion is just so grand and so magnificent. If I had an opportunity to come to Southern Utah and only had time to visit one of the National Parks in the area, I think I would have to recommend Zion....or Bryce. Both are beautiful yet different. But at Zion, the peaks just tower above you wherever you turn. This park is also one of the major attractions for rock climbers as well and you could see some of them climbing up some of the large faces of the mountains. They looked like little dots on the side of the mountains. Crazy in my opinion.

So as you scroll down, please view the pictures and decide for yourself about Zion. People like to say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I will agree that sometimes a picture can say a whole lot more than words could ever express. Otherwise, I would I be posting all these pictures if not to capture and express a moment in time. But then neither a picture nor words can honestly express the true beauty that can only be experienced in person.

I hope that through my words and through my pictures they can somehow serve as a simple substitute for those who cannot be here with me. At least through my words and my pictures you can get some feeling of what this overall experience has been like for me and continues to be like for me. And in some way you're able to experience it too. Maybe even inspire you to make your own pilgrimage someday to experience some of this magnificent beauty in our own backyard.

As it came time to leave and head towards Kanab, as I mentioned, the road I was supposed to take leaving Zion was closed due to the rock slides from last night. We had some pretty good storms in the area last night so I guess they did a number on the huge boulders and rocks. You may recall that Zion is also where 7 hikers lost their lives on September 14th due to flash flooding that caught them off guard. Well as a result of today's road closure, the detour I had to take actually took me about 30-40+ miles out of my way down into Northern Arizona and then back up and around again into Southern Utah into Kanab. So as the saying goes, you just roll with the punches and go wherever the roads may lead you.

Tomorrow's agenda includes Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Glen Canyon Dam. Then an overnight stay in Page, AZ before heading South towards the Granddaddy of them all, the Grand Canyon!

So until tomorrow, please enjoy the beautiful scenery around Zion National Park.