Zion National Park, Part I — What We Saw, What We Read

Pictures (especially camera phone pictures) cannot do Zion justice. I'm sure those words have been spoken before. We left Moab on a Tuesday morning and drove toward Virgin, Utah just outside of Zion National Park. The five-hour drive went by in a flash since we binge-listened The Black Tapes (a serial paranormal mystery podcast perfect for mind-numbing drives just before Halloween). We made it to a patch of BLM land in the early afternoon and set up our tent in considerable and unexpected heat; 80-degree weather and our nights would be in the high 40s- basically paradise. Our campground was a little busy but we didn't give it a second thought. We would find out later we probably should have noticed the unusually large number of mountain bikers around.

The next morning we woke up early, made breakfast, and set off for Zion. The park is incredibly efficient and takes care to reduce car traffic in the park by providing shuttles that carry you to different trailheads in the park. The shuttle travels a road that follows the Virgin River, a seemingly mild river that actually provided the powerful erosive force that carved the canyons over centuries. The river apparently carries away over a million tons of sediment annually predominantly during dangerous flash floods that rip through the canyons.

Our first day we hiked the Emerald Pools Trail to a series of natural ponds below weeping rocks. Along the water, the desert landscape that surrounds the park resembles an oasis and vegetation grows along the cliffside as water trickles down. The place was serene and meditative. We gazed at the pools as the sun slowly crept up in the sky to illuminate the canyon. As more visitors began to arrive in the area, we climbed down and used a pedestrian trail to walk back to the visitor center. We hiked along The Watchman trail in the early afternoon, along steep and rugged desert cliffs that overlooked the park entrance. The landscape was stark and drastically different from our morning excursion but still beautiful. We made a mental note to come back one day around sunset.

Zion felt like the perfect change to our time spent in Moab. We would definitely take our time at this park and stretch our visit over a few weeks. Unfortunately, as our night unfolded, that plan was foiled (at least for a few days). We arrived back at our campsite with time to make dinner and rest in our hammock between perfect hammock trees. As it got later, we noticed the small campsites around us fill until the grounds felt more like a city than the wilderness. One person opened the doors of his van, turned on a discoball and blasted music from the back. Campers around us shouted in a call and response fashion "Rampage!" It hit us- this was Red Bull Rampage, a mountain biking competition taking place in Virgin, and we were right at the center. As the night went on, event-goers blasted music, shot fireworks, and one pleasant pair played dueling fog-horns until two in the morning. We quickly realized we would have to adjust our plan and find a new place to camp until the grounds cleared and the dust literally settled.

The next morning, we hopped in our cars (maybe making a bit more noise than usual out of vengeance) and came back to Zion, a refuge from the camp. We found a trail called Hidden Canyon which took us high up from the river and deep into a pathway. We scrambled over rocks and tree branches until we made it to a free standing arch tucked away along the trail. We were completely alone in this beautiful place and our nerves calmed. Maybe it was our timing. Maybe during the popular days the crowds make the park overwhleming. It must have been our luck to come at a time when we were able to find moments of complete isolation in this wonderful space. We made it back to our campsite, threw our things in the car, and left the site quickly. We would be coming back soon.