Utah April 17-24, 2022

Sunday, Apr 17 - Travel Day

Weather Cool and Clear, good travel day.

Long travel day. Picked up at 7:15am for O'hare. Flight left around 10:15 and we flew to Las Vegas. No problems with the flight but it was pretty long. We landed around 12:15 Vegas time, picked up our bags pretty quick and headed for the rental shuttle. Then the delays hit. The line to catch the rental shuttle was huge and took an hour. We had Easter Brunch reservations at the Wynn Hotel on the strip at 2:00 PM and thought we still had time to get there. The rental desk was fast but, just getting out of the parking lot took another half hour. So, we missed our Brunch.

We settled for lunch at Denny's outside of Vegas. We were starving by then. The service was fast and the food was good so, no harm done.

Drove to St. George, Utah stopped for groceries and then headed to our AirBnd in Le Verkin about 20 minutes outside of Zion. AirBnd was really nice. Had the whole house, clean and new everything. We are here for two nights.

Simple dinner at the airbnb as we had such a late lunch.

Monday, Apr 18 - Zion National Park

Weather Cool and breezy in the Canyon early and then nice and warm as the day progressed. Great weather for hiking.

I was really worried about the crowds at Zion. It is not a large park (150,000 acres) and has 5 million visitors a year. We debated parking outside the park in Springdale and shuttling to the park and then again shuttling inside the park once we got there. Not too excited about all that. Instead we decided to go early to get a parking spot at the Visitor Center. We got to the park at 7:15 (opens at 7:00) with only a tiny line to get into the park. Pleasant surprise,a ll that worrying about huge crowds for nothing!

Zion operates shuttles to take you to 9 trail heads from the visitor center. Read about big crowds on the shuttles. Another pleasant surprise! All day long as we hiked the various parts of the park, the shuttles were big, constantly arriving and low crowds. Happy Days!

View at the Visitor Center

Riverside Walk Trail

We took the shuttle to the last stop (#9 Temple of Sinawava) for our first hike. Easy, really nice hike along the river (2.2 Miles / 57' Elev Gain). Moderate traffic, I was expecting Heavy, Heavy traffic.

Lower Emerald Pool, Upper Emerald Pool and Kayenta Trails

After our easy start on the river walk trail we hopped the shuttle and went down to the Zion Lodge shuttle stop (#5). Here we had a more moderate hike with some elevation. We started on the Lower Emerald Pool trail which lead to the Upper Emerald Pool trail and then linked with the Kayenta Trail. Excellent Hike (4.2 Miles / 419' Elev Gain).

Then back to the visitor center and had our packed lunch on a bench.

Pa'rus Trail

The final hike for the day was flat and was a pretty nice trail from the visitor center (3.6 Miles / 50' Elev Gain).

It was a good day of hiking. We left the park and stopped at Me-Me's in Springdale for beer and a snack. It was tasty, we were hungry!

Tuesday, Apr 19 - Zion National Park

Weather is good again today, cool in the morning and warming up in the afternoon. Nice and sunny with low humidity.

Watchman Trail

We got to the park around 7:30 and drove right in.

Our first hike started at the visitor center and was our favorite hike in Zion. The trail was lightly trafficked and a great hike (3.1 Miles / 400 Elev Gain).

Court of the Patriarchs

Took the shuttle to stop #4 and walked up to a nice view of the three patriarchs named after three towering figures from the old testament (from left to right in the first picture Abraham, Isaac and Jacob).

Grotto Trail

Our second hike started at the Zion Lodge (Stop #5) and ended at the Grotto (Stop #6) where we had a picnic lunch. After lunch we hiked back to the Zion Lodge for our trail head to our next hike. Lightly trafficked and a nice short hike (1.0 Miles / 35 Elev Gain).

Middle and Lower Emerald Trails

For our final hike of the day we went back to the Emerald Pools area and did the steeper Middle Emerald Pool Trail that connects to Lower Emerald which we repeated from yesterday to make it a loop. Sections of this hike had some heavier traffic but not too bad. A good hike (3.4 Miles / 219 Elev Gain).

After our last hike we drove the scenic Zion Mount Carmel Highway and Tunnel (short delay at the tunnel) heading East to get to Panguitch, UT near Bryce Canyon. A pretty 1 1/2 hour drive.

We are at this Airbnb for three nights and is about 30 minutes to Bryce Canyon's visitor center. The building was new and the place was huge. Definitely stay again if we visit Bryce again.

Wednesday, Apr 20 - Bryce Canyon National Park

Weather the same cool in the morning warmer in the afternoon.

Talking to some people on the Zion shuttle, who had just come from Bryce, said it was not very parked up. So, we slept in and got to Bryce at 9:15. Drove straight into the park. Still lots of parking at the visitor center. Nice!

Sunrise Point

We shuttled from the VC to Sunrise Point (stop #13) and walked up to sunrise point for our first views of the amphitheater. Amazing!

One short video

Queens, Queen Victoria and Navajo/Wall Street Loop

This hike starts at the Rim and descends down to the bottom of the Canyon. To make a loop we descended on the Queens trail, with a short spur to Queen Victoria Point. Then turned back up the canyon on the Navajo trail. The Navajo trail has two ways up Wall Street and Twin Towers. We chose wall street and I think it was a good choice. It was an amazing ascent up close and personal to the walls and hoodoos. The hike was moderate and moderate/heavily trafficked (3.2 Miles / 750 Elev Gain). An excellent hike.

After the hike we took the short shuttle ride back to the visitor center and had lunch on a bench.

Tower Bridge

Shuttled back to Sunrise Point (probably should have taken our lunch with us in the morning) and did the Tower Bridge hike. This was a long winding trail down to the bottom of the canyon in a different direction that the morning hike. At the bottom there is a short spur to a shady spot to view the Tower Bridge Hoodoo. The hike was moderate and lightly trafficked (3.5 Miles / 802 Elev Gain).

Both these hikes were amazing and highly recommended. The Queen/Navajo hike was amazing up close and personal to the hoodoos. The Tower Bridge hike was more serene and less trafficked. A good day hiking. We were hungry and had burgers and beers at the Airbnb.

Thursday, Apr 21 - Bryce Canyon National Park

Weather Pretty much the same except winds were kicking up to 20 MPH.

Rim Trail

Back to Bryce for our second day. Again no problems, drove right in, plenty of parking. We shuttled to Bryce point.

Our hiking today is lighter. The Rim Trail stays up on the rim of the amphitheater (duh). We hiked from Bryce point to Inspiration Point, then to Sunset Point, then Bryce Lodge and finally ended at Sunrise point. Except for the shuttle stop sections it was and easy lightly trafficked hike without much elevation. I was surprised at how many pictures I took. It seemed every turn gave you different views, different lighting and different hoodoos. I was looking out for the most iconic, most photographed hoodoo and found it nestled in with the thousands of other hoodoos as we traversed the rim. Very cool. My only shot is not a very good vantage point, it is the 2nd to the last photo in this set. Google Bryce Canyon and you will see way better shots. A really nice hike with amazing views into the amphitheater.

Rim Trail-Bryce Point to Inspiration Point

A couple of videos

Rim Trail-Inspiration Point to Sunset Point

Rim Trail-Sunset Point to Sunrise Point

Scenic Drive

This is our last day in Bryce so we did the scenic drive. The shuttle only goes around the amphitheater but the park has a scenic drive that takes you all the way to the far West end of the park. Note, parking at the main shuttle area stops was pretty jammed up so, taking the shuttle to these destinations is the way to go. But, once you are out past the main amphitheater we had no problem pulling off at every outlook to stop and take pictures. We stopped at: Swamp Canyon, Fairview Point, Natural Bridge (technically an arch) is is the second most iconic pic in the park), Agua Canyon, Ponderosa Canyon, Black Birch Canyon and finally the last stop, Yovimpa Point. We had lunch at the Natural Bridge lookout but, it was windy and cool so just ate in the car.

Swamp Canyon

Fairview Point

A couple of videos

Natural Bridge

Agua Canyon

Ponderosa Point

Rainbow Point

Yovimpa Point- Bristlecone Loop Trail

At the last stop we did a short easy hike. The wind was blowing strong above the tree line. Lightly trafficked easy, nice hike (1 Mile / 200 Elev Gain). This was highest point in Bryce Canyon at 8600' and defines the top of the Grand Staircase on the Colorado Plateau ending at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. This is the only place in Bryce we saw any fire damage. We didn't see any in Zion.

After the hike we had a long drive ahead of us. We drove back down the scenic highway, said goodbye to Bryce Canyon and Headed back to Panguich.

We had dinner at the Cowboy Smokehouse Cafe in town. It was good.

Friday, Apr 22 - Snow Canyon State Park

Weather Cold, rainy and windy

We checked out of our Airbnd and headed to the St. George Area. This gets us a good part of the way back to Vegas for our return flight tomorrow. We did hit some rain on the way to our hiking destination outside of St. George.

Snow Canyon State Park - Lave Tube Trail

When we got to the park it was windy, cold and very overcast but not raining. We got in our easy but very, very cool hike. The State Park was pretty spectacular. It featured lava flows from eruptions around 27,000 years ago with three cool lava tubes on the trails. The landscape also had interesting petrified dunes, sandy dessert sections, lots of interesting plant life and looming sandstone and limestone peaks.

We got lucky with the weather and only got rained on a little bit on our hike. Hike was really good (2.9miles/ 400 elev Gain).

It was still rainy and windy after the hike so just ate lunch in the car. No problem. The weather was getting too threatening so we decided to skip the last hike(s) of the day. We have logged lots of miles and elevation this week so we were good.

Headed to Irvin (outside of St. George) to our Airbnb. The first disappointment of the trip. It is a 2 bdrm 2 bath whole house but, we think it was lived in by old people (even older than us) and although they fixed up some things to turn it into an Airbnb, the furniture, mattresses (ugh), decor and fixtures were not changed. It wasn't terrible but, I think if they would have spent some money on new furniture, etc., it would have been much nicer. And, strangely, people were also staying in the two car garage next to the house. Thankfully, we are only here one night.

We had a nice dinner in downtown St. George at the WoodAsh Rye restaurant. Starter was pork belly, Kathryn had a pasta and salmon entree and I had a filet. Tasty!

Saturday, Apr 23 - Travel Day

Weather: Sunny, cool, nice.

St. George

We had a 6PM flight so we had time to spend around St. George. We headed to the St. George airport for a small war bird museum. It was really small and not too much there. Then, back to the historic downtown section of St. George. St. George is a pretty town nestled in the mountains (the "Piano Guys" grew up there btw). The downtown is nice. Spent some time hanging out at the town square and sculpture gardens, enjoying the weather. Had lunch at the Bear Paw Diner. Food was tasty.

Air Museum and St. George Sculpture Gardens

After lunch we drove back to Las Vegas, caught our flight back to O'hare and was back home about 12:30am

Home Sweet Home.

Summary

This was a great trip. I was expecting big crowds at both Zion and Bryce and was pleasantly surprised the crowds were moderate. We did do early starts at Zion to be sure we got a parking spot in the visitor center. The shuttle system in the park is excellent and most of the hikes were light or moderately trafficked. Bryce was even less crowded so we did later starts and still easily got into the Visitor center parking. Shuttle system was great and all the hikes were light or moderately trafficked.

Zion and Bryce both are incredible National Parks. If I had to pick, Bryce was my favorite. The amphitheater gives you so many different looks at every turn. Finally, near St. George Snow Canyon State Park with it's lava tubes, petrified dunes and Sandstone/Limestone mountains was a nice find. The town of St. George is quaint, quite and clean.

My favorite hike at Zion was Watchman's and my favorite hike(s) at Bryce were Queens & Navajo (wall street) for it's up close and personal interaction with the hoodoos and Tower Bridge for its solitude and terrific views.

Weather was great, cool and sunny in the mornings, warming up in the afternoons and low humidity. April is a great time to visit Utah for both the weather and less visitors.

Geology

I copied the introduction to an article on the geology of Zion. Here is a link to the full article: Zion Geology.

"Zion National Park is located along the edge of a region known as the Colorado Plateau. The rock layers have been uplifted, tilted, and eroded, forming a feature called the Grand Staircase, a series of colorful cliffs stretching between Bryce Canyon and the Grand Canyon. The bottom layer of rock at Bryce Canyon is the top layer at Zion, and the bottom layer at Zion is the top layer at the Grand Canyon."

I copied the introduction to an article on the geology of Bryce Canyon. Here is a link to the full article: Bryce Geology.

"Bryce Canyon is known for distinctive hoodoos, spires and towers that appear as forests of rock. This national park is part of the Colorado Plateau, a region of the present-day Southwest United States that was once periodically flooded by freshwater and marine landscapes in which massive amounts of fine-grained sediment was deposited over millions of years, lithified into sedimentary rock, and were later uplifted by tectonic activity. Over time, the rock was subjected to the slow, powerful forces of weathering and erosion that molded the landscape into the layered columns seen today. Bryce Canyon is a picturesque fountain of information, informing geologists of the land’s history through the rock layers and unique structures."