Ronny Gabriels Photography

It had been a long day of travelling when we finally arrived in our hotel in Las Vegas on the 6th of September.  The waiting in airports and long flights combined, we had pretty much been travelling for 24 hours. Only to realize when we drove our rental car over the Las Vegas Strip that it was in fact Labor day weekend. Possibly one of the busiest weekends in Las Vegas. Ah well, what’s a traffic jam at 9PM in Las Vegas when you can start your 3 week vacation right? Right!

That Monday was spent walking and driving.  The walking in the AM in Las Vegas and the driving in the direction of Zion National Park. Our first official stop of the vacation.  But first Vegas. Let’s just say that I’ll never become a fan (or maybe when I had too much too drink and couldn’t tell reality from fiction). It is so unbelievably over the top that you are going to have to see it for yourself to believe it. And because the difference between the indoor air-co’s and the outside heat made for an almost sickening environment I was glad to get going for Zion. I’m glad I saw Vegas, but I wouldn’t be too disappointed if I never got back there.

So Zion.  We arrived in Springdale, were our hotel was located, in the late afternoon. The hotel was called “Majestic View Lodge” and it more than delivered on it’s name. You can see some of the photos in the “Zion National Park” gallery on my site. It was the last stop of the Springdale shuttle bus to the park so that meant we could leave the car at the hotel and make our way to the park by bus and there take the shuttle bus into the park itself. All of the smaller parks in the US should implement this. It’s convenient, fast and a great way to have an almost guided tour of the park.  As an extra bonus you eliminate cars from the park which is great for visitors and wildlife alike.

  View from the Majestic View Lodge in Springdale, UT

I don’t know whether it was just because Zion was our first park on the trip or not, but I was pretty impressed with it. Zion was one of the parks I had done almost no research for beforehand, so I didn’t really knew what the park had to offer. A lot as it turned out. Most of the canyon parks are build on the rim of the canyon. Zion national park is actually located on the floor of the canyon which gives you straight cliffs reaching up hundreds of feet right beside you, while having a very green feel at the ground level with lots of plants, trees, a river and wildlife.   

  Bighorn sheep near the Zion National Park East Entrance

The first night we explored the park just from the bus because we had limited time. The second day we made quite some stops and started our hiking with the riverside walk on the far side of the park and the emerald pool trail later that same day.  It was a great warm-up for the rest of the vacation and it gave a pretty good idea of what the park was all about. On day three we started the Observation point trail early in the morning after a golden tip of one of the bus drivers.  Although it was the trail with the biggest elevation change and also took the longest to complete in the entire park, we felt up to a challenge.  The only thing I can say is that the view was worth the 5hour hike.  Look at the photos and dare to disagree.

View from Observation Point in Zion National Park

An overview of the entire park and beyond, observation point is though to reach but worth every step. We did see people coming up the mountain in the sun when we were going down around noon and by the look of their faces it save to say “START EARLY”.  Before 10AM most of the trail is in the shade and my god does that make a difference :-) We took the afternoon off and stayed by the pool only to go back to the park at sunset for some photographic opportunities (I couldn’t resist).

 
Evening shot in Zion National Park (Riverside walk)

Two full days was all we had at Zion National Park before we had to leave and go to Bryce Canyon. Now because Bryce and Zion are so close together we made a “little” (read 5hour) detour via Grand Canyon North Rim.  If you are every looking to visit the Grand Canyon in peace, this is the way to do it.  The North Rim is arguably a lot smaller than the South Rim, but because of the fact there is only one hotel and pretty much nothing else in a two-hour drive radius, it beautifully quiet, plus a lot more beautiful nature-wise in my opinion. As an added bonus the drive up to the North Rim travels over the absolutely stunning North Kaibab National Forest road. So despite taken 6 hours to get from Zion to Bryce (which is basically a 1 hour drive), it was a great day.  The photos from the North Rim will be included later with the other Grand Canyon photos.

So with Stage 1 complete, Bryce Canyon was the next beautiful stage in this three week trip.  Check back soon for the story about Bryce.

Hope you enjoy the photos!  See them here!