Zion National Park

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Bill: We are at Zion National Park today. It was the first day of Memorial Day holiday weekend. The park was packed with visitors (our first time dealing with crowds) and parking was practically nonexistent. The visitors parking lot was small and therefore it necessitated parking along the road in the little nearby town of Springdale. Thankfully Zion runs shuttles into town to bring you to the visitors center at the park.

Zion requires you to use their shuttle buses in order to travel the road in the canyon. It is a canyon because there is a river running through it that has eroded away the red sandstone rock over the ages. The roads could never handle the volume of traffic. Shuttles take you along the road at the bottom of the canyon, and you look up to see the towering spires of red rock sandstone. It was amazing to realize you were 'caught' between tower rock on both sides. The formations are very imposing.