Southwest Vacation - Utah to Nevada
First stop we made was the grocery store, which is always our first stop before a road trip. We hit Zion National Park almost immediately after that, snacks and drinks in hand. The entrance we were nearest to was closed for re-construction so we hit the south entrance. It took us a little further away from our normal route, but we wanted to see Zion after looking at pictures online. The drive there was gorgeous of course.
The park itself has very little to no parking and was full. They have free shuttles that run throughout the park, but you have to walk to the stops first. We found an overflow lot by the camping area (lucky us!), and started walking towards the visitor center/museum. It was a loooong trail and it was already hot outside... especially for people who just came from a snowy mountain. Great views though!! It's definitely a gorgeous park.
We saw a lot of lizards and interesting plants along the way. Everyone was pretty happy and eager to get going. Then the heat started getting to us.
We stopped at all the Virgin River access points and took our sweet time, but we were all hot and hungry... and we hadn't even made it to the trailhead yet. We had already come so far, so we kept going until the shuttle stop.
We took the shuttle to "Weeping Rock", so we had a long ride and recovered from the arduous, flat, paved walk to the shuttle. I didn't even take pictures of weeping rock. The path there was less than a quarter of a mile, narrow, and really crowded. The entrance to the trailhead was cool though. The rocks were so ginormous!
Every other trail available was either too short and easy or crazy difficult and 8mi long. Not great for us in that heat with kids. We got right back onto the shuttle and headed back to the car. No regrets for seeing what we did, but I think next time we'll take Kolob Terrace Road and hit the west trails... away from the people. OR not come with kids and do some real hiking to The Subway to go see the lava tunnels!
The walk back was just as pretty as the walk there :) Poor Noah ended up getting a massive headache (probably from the drastic altitude change) so I was glad we didn't hike very long. I wouldn't discount revisiting Zion, but it was far more touristy than what we normally enjoy. We were all exhausted and hungry after that tiny trip. It took over an hour to park and walk towards where we actually wanted to go. This was our least favorite stop. Still pretty. No regrets, but we liked a lot of other places much more.
We went straight to our hotel in Las Vegas. No more stops. We were done. All we did when we got to the hotel was eat, chill, and swim. The pool was outside... we were officially back in the desert.
Our next chapter: Las Vegas, Nevada
The park itself has very little to no parking and was full. They have free shuttles that run throughout the park, but you have to walk to the stops first. We found an overflow lot by the camping area (lucky us!), and started walking towards the visitor center/museum. It was a loooong trail and it was already hot outside... especially for people who just came from a snowy mountain. Great views though!! It's definitely a gorgeous park.
We saw a lot of lizards and interesting plants along the way. Everyone was pretty happy and eager to get going. Then the heat started getting to us.
We stopped at all the Virgin River access points and took our sweet time, but we were all hot and hungry... and we hadn't even made it to the trailhead yet. We had already come so far, so we kept going until the shuttle stop.
We took the shuttle to "Weeping Rock", so we had a long ride and recovered from the arduous, flat, paved walk to the shuttle. I didn't even take pictures of weeping rock. The path there was less than a quarter of a mile, narrow, and really crowded. The entrance to the trailhead was cool though. The rocks were so ginormous!
Every other trail available was either too short and easy or crazy difficult and 8mi long. Not great for us in that heat with kids. We got right back onto the shuttle and headed back to the car. No regrets for seeing what we did, but I think next time we'll take Kolob Terrace Road and hit the west trails... away from the people. OR not come with kids and do some real hiking to The Subway to go see the lava tunnels!
The walk back was just as pretty as the walk there :) Poor Noah ended up getting a massive headache (probably from the drastic altitude change) so I was glad we didn't hike very long. I wouldn't discount revisiting Zion, but it was far more touristy than what we normally enjoy. We were all exhausted and hungry after that tiny trip. It took over an hour to park and walk towards where we actually wanted to go. This was our least favorite stop. Still pretty. No regrets, but we liked a lot of other places much more.
We went straight to our hotel in Las Vegas. No more stops. We were done. All we did when we got to the hotel was eat, chill, and swim. The pool was outside... we were officially back in the desert.
Our next chapter: Las Vegas, Nevada
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