Zion National Park is gorgeous.

The park is located in southwestern Utah, only about a 2.5 hour drive from Las Vegas. It makes for a very easy National Park to access from just about anywhere, as Las Vegas is a simple city to get to. We were apparently in the park in off season, which was good for us. Apparently, when it is busy, cars cannot drive in the park. There is parking outside the park, then you take shuttles in. I imagine that makes things easier when the number of visitors is high.

As it was, when we were there, there were very few other visitors. We stopped at the Visitor Center and talked with the Ranger about hikes that were available to us. We settled on the hikes at the Emerald Pools area. I think we only ran into two other groups along the way, and it was beautiful, breathtaking, gorgeous, and all sorts of other adjectives. The hike itself was strenuous, but not overly so, and both of us, even with our familiarity with Midwestern way of hiking, were fine. We packed a lunch, and after the hike, sat down in "The Grotto" and ate. After that, we traveled down the road to check out the Riverside Walk, which is an easy, paved trail through a steep canyon along the river. That trail was a bit busier, and we got "stuck" behind a few slower people. We ended up veering off and hanging out by the river. It was a really nice way to spend the day.

This is one of the parks where you could spend a week doing different hikes, and never seeing the same one twice. Someday, I'll come back to do that.

If you would like more information about Zion National Park, please visit the National Park Service website at: https://www.nps.gov/zion/index.htm

#Utah