Zion canyon

We didn’t realize it was Spring Break. For everybody. And that there was a marathon going on…

We pulled into Zion at around 5am. We didn’t have any reservations. The campground, South Campground, was first come-first-served and we had read that to get a spot you needed to line up early. When we got in line there were easily 10 other campers ahead of us. (None of them had a 39 foot camper tho) Our back up plan was to find some public land to camp on but thought it might be fun to try to stay inside the National Park for a change. We got lucky and there was room for us and we stayed there a week.

View from our window

The good: We were a short walk to the shuttle bus and the Visitor’s Center. We met several other families and kids who were on Spring Break and Eloise had fun getting to meet all of them. The campground was paved and she enjoyed riding her bike all around. The weather while we were there was mostly pleasant with one rainy day and there was a nice restaurant we could walk to right from our camper. Our favorite hike was the Wildcat Canyon trail which was located off of the Kolob Terrace Road which is a less popular area of the park. Amazing views and no people!

Eloise and her many friends

The bad: Because it was only early April, not all of the roads/hiking trails were open. Most notably the famous ‘Narrows’ hike was closed due to high water along with several other trails which were closed for maintenance. Roads in the northern park of the park were closed due to snow.  The park seemed under staffed for the number of visitors. The line of cars at the entrance gate to get from the nearby village into Zion was a mile long on some days.

Hiking views

The ugly: Over crowding. One day Eloise and Eliza and I hiked up to the emerald pools in Zion Canyon while Kevin was working. It was a short 3 mile hike. It was packed. We walked (trudged) right behind other hikers the whole way there and back. To access the many hiking trails in Zion Canyon you must ride the shuttle bus which was super packed and standing room only. We waited for 2 buses before I said the heck with it and pushed my way on the bus wearing Eliza and holding Eloise’s hand. In another example of the over crowding: there were several trail heads that you take your own car to that were so packed with cars that even in the early morning we couldn’t hike them as there was no place to park. Fun.

All in all Zion was gorgeous. Beautiful scenery. Unfortunately its proximity to major cities means this park has record breaking crowds early in the year. I can’t even imagine it at its peak. We had a nice time but did not achieve that quiet ‘back to nature’ vibe we were hoping for at a National Park.

The cool kids who finished the hike first and waited for us back at the truck