Roadtrip Part 3: Zion National Park

So remember how much I loved Bryce Canyon? Well, I think Zion was even better.

Coming here wasn't part of the original plan. However, when my sister's altitude-induced headache went from bad to worse, we decided it would be a good idea to move to slightly lower elevation. Luckily we were able to reserve a last-minute hotel room at the Majestic View Lodge in Springdale, so we packed up our camping gear and headed down to Zion National Park.

This isn't a place that translates well to pictures (or at least, my pictures don't do it any justice). I think it's the magnitude and scale of the landscape that makes it a magical place, and that's something you just can't express properly in a photo. In person, this place is astounding.

We had one day to explore the park, but we could have spent a week here. After a really yummy breakfast and a dose of good hiking advice at Oscar's Cafe, we hopped on the park's shuttle system to get ourselves on some trails.

We started on the Riverside Walk, which leads to the beginning of "The Narrows," one of the most popular hikes in the park. We were unprepared to hike any of it on this trip as it involves actually walking through the river between towering cliff walls, but we made our way along the river to the entrance and saw enough to ensure that we'll bring ourselves back one day to do it right (with water shoes and without expensive non-waterproof camera equipment)!

After that we went up another little trail and spent some time sitting underneath a rock wall with cascading "raindrops" falling before of our view of the canyon. It was beautiful and the perfect place to cool off and rest for a bit in the middle of an incredibly hot day.

Our final hike took us to the upper Emerald Pool (and through a spraying waterfall). We loved this hike! It was one of the highlights of the whole trip. It was so, so gorgeous. And beautiful. And magnificent. And enchanting. And amazing. Get the idea?

We were pretty zapped by the end of the day, and sitting by the pool at our hotel with an ideal view of the sun setting over the hills was the perfect end to a fantastic day. I'm SO glad we ended up coming here. It's definitely a place worth seeing!