Zion....Beautiful but Difficult

Our next stop after Bryce was Zion National Park. I found a Passport America park that looked nice but we decided to stay at Mount Carmel Motel and RV Park because it was very close to the road going in to Zion. It was a good move. It is a small park with full hookups but no extras and a small motel. The manager was very nice and location was the important issue.

It was a short drive from Bryce to Zion so we had lunch and headed on into the park. Heads up, they are doing construction on the road going to the park so you may have waits there.

The rock features at Zion are very different from Bryce.

It is also a drive to get to the park entrance itself.

On the way into the park, we had a rather lengthy wait to go through this tunnel. There were cones down the middle and for ages nothing came through from the other side while we were waiting to go through. They do shut the tunnel down for larger RVs to go through (for a charge) but that is not what was going on. For some reason, they were only letting traffic through one direction at a time....later I figured maybe they were controlling how many people could enter the park.

I think I took this picture on our way out when traffic was coming through from both directions.

It is quite a long tunnel so you need your headlights to see.

 This is the Visitor's Center and Gift Shop. From the parking lot, it looked like it was all shut up. I waited here while the kids went to hike a nearby trail.

They hiked the Watchman Trail.

After a while, I walked around and found out that was the back side of the Visitors Center. I took some pictures of the displays.

This is the front side. The Gift shop was open but that was about it. None of the shuttles were running and they are definitely needed as parking at Zion is really limited. We had no chance of going on the Scenic Drive at all. One of the other visitors told me they asked a ranger and were told that they were letting 50 cars in when 50 cars came out. There was no place to wait your turn so it was simply luck of the draw if you happened to be driving past when they decided to let the next 50 in. That may have made it easier for the rangers to count cars but it totally screwed things up for visitors. Disappointing to say the least. It would have gone better if they did 10 cars at a time.

After the kids got back from their hike, we headed out and of course didn't get to go on the Scenic Drive on the way out either.

We did see some wildlife.

The next morning, Steve, Helen, and Cameron left the RV park at 4:30AM hoping to go on the Scenic Drive so they could hike the Narrows. The rest of us slept in. They only made it halfway up through the Scenic Drive before they were stopped.....no more parking. It was too far to walk to the end and then hike so they hiked the trail near where they had to park. The rest of the pictures are theirs.

   

Sun rising over mountains!

 

Back at the RV park, it was approaching 11:00AM. I wasn't sure what time checkout was so I called the manager and asked if we could unhook and park off to the side until the hikers got back.  She said she wasn't full for that night so just stay right where we were until they got back. Nice people.

By the time the hikers returned and we had a very quick lunch it was 2:00PM. Our plan was to head to the Jacobs Lake area and boondock again while we visited the North Rim. Wrong! The Magnum Fire was spreading rapidly. They closed the North Rim and then they closed Hwy 89a so not only did we have to go to Plan B, we also had to backtrack on Hwy 89 to Page. We headed out and by the time we got to Page, it was really hot....too hot for Steve and Helen to sleep in the truck cap. We decided to head on to the South Rim. Unfortunately, the East Gate to the South Rim was closed. So we headed to Flagstaff where we knew it was higher and thus cooler. We stopped and picked up some dinner from a Mexican restaurant (take out only) and headed out. It would have been fully dark by the time we reached the South Rim so we got out iOverlander and found a great boondocking site just northwest of Flagstaff right on our route. It was more crowded but we didn't want to head further into the forest since we would be leaving so we picked a spot and parked and it worked out fine. Next morning, we were off to the South Rim.

Bryce the Magnificent!

From Page, AZ we drove around Hwy 89. We looked for any signs pointing to Grand Escalante Staircase because maps did not clearly show any entrances to the area. We went up past Kanab, Zion, Red Rock Canyon.....the scenery was beautiful. Have no fear, my RV had no problems with the tunnel.

Just before Bryce, we turned off on Tom Best Spring road because we planned to boondock, wild camp, dry camp (whatever you choose to call it) in the national forest. I had directions from my friend Donna Carmon. It was a dirt, gravel road. We drove both the truck and RV in and then Steve scouted in the truck for a good place.

Hmmmm…...this spot is taken.  (Actually took this the next morning on our way to Bryce.)

This will do nicely. We had shade and views, what more could you ask for. There were neighbors but everyone was well spread out. It was a great spot.

Harley thought it was a great spot too.

This guy wandered by but we had no cow plops in our area. They went around us.

Angus thought it was a great spot. He kept watch on all the "big dogs" in the distance.

I've dry camped in some different places like rest areas, or even overnighted at Walmart but this was my first national forest and it definitely won't be the last. Just for those solos wondering, I would have felt perfectly safe here all on my own.

After we set up and relaxed, we headed into Bryce just a couple of miles away. Our original intention was to ask about how to get to Grand Escalante Staircase. As we found out later, it is not set up like a regular national park and the roads in are treacherous if at all wet.

What can I say about Bryce? It is magnificent and unique and awe-inspiring! I also need to add that of the three national parks we visited, Bryce was absolutely head and shoulders above the others in being prepared to welcome visitors in a safe way while still showing off the great park. They had done a lot of planning to have their shuttles running complying with all safety directives. Seats were removed to promote the proper distancing, the driver was separated by plexiglass but still able to deliver a great narrative along the route and there was a second person there to hand out masks to anyone who didn't have one and wanted one as well as to make sure everyone boarded and debarked safely. The rangers had booths set up with tables in front to ensure safe distancing while still being able to answer questions and provide guidance about the park. The visitor's center was open with spacing set up. You were requested to not pick up merchandise until you were ready to buy. Of course, I saw two boys touching everything in sight but it was not surprising as I turned around and their parents were doing the same thing creating much extra cleaning work. Other than that, everyone acted pretty responsibly wearing masks in gathering areas and taking them off in open hiking areas where distancing was easy.  Since we have returned home, I understand that the rangers are back to giving talks at different locations asking visitors to watch spacing. The museum is also open although the movie area remains closed. 

My 16 year old grandson was amazed and excited by the views and hiking possibilities.

Almost anyone could get to some of the awe-inspiring views but there are some places where more agility is required. I was waiting in the truck at one viewing area when my grandson came running back to say I needed to come because the view was fabulous without climbing the hill shown. He was right!

The views were different and unique at different spots.

During the two days we were there, we drove out to the furthest point beyond where the shuttles go just to make sure we saw as much as we could.

Steve, Helen, Cameron, and Morgan hiked the most recommended trail which includes "Wall Street" and were truly impressed and thrilled.

Morgan is slightly less enthused about hiking than Cameron but she was also impressed and very glad she went.

Antelope Canyon was closed when we were in Page which was disappointing but understandable since it is on an Indian Reservation but some of the places on this hike made up for that. Steve and Helen took the pictures while they were hiking.

Lots of great memories and bonding moments.

So what were the rest of us doing while this serious hiking was going on......well, Angus and Harley were at home in the RV snoozing comfortably. I jumped on the shuttle and started out.

When we stopped at Bryce the first afternoon, I enquired about a blogging friend of mine who is a ranger at Bryce but she wasn't working. The next day, I asked another ranger if Gaelyn Olmsted was working but she was off and I figured she might have left the park as it is a drive to get to a large grocery store. The ranger asked if she could take a picture and send it to Gaelyn. That was right before I hopped on the shuttle and the kids went off for their big hike. Well, a little while later I got a message from Gaelyn asking where I was because she had headed down to the visitor's center. She told me to get off the shuttle and she would catch up with me. I thought the driver said we were just pulling up to the Lodge so that is where Gaelyn went but I was actually near the small grocery and eating place so she hiked over to meet me. 

Gaelyn and I had never met in person before but we have followed each other's blogs for years so I was very excited to have the chance to meet her in person. She has been a ranger every summer for many, many years. This is her second year at Bryce. Before that she was at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon for many years. She takes absolutely stunning pictures that have been published in many different magazines. If you have any interest in blogs, traveling, being a nomad, etc., you really need to follow the Geogypsy's blog  and while you are there browsing posts, be sure to click on the film poster of the Gypsy to see the film about being a nomad. A Florida college student tracked her down and made this film for a college project. He did a great job and Gaelyn has some really interesting insights into the nomadic life.

So I was really thrilled when we caught up to each other and spent a couple of hours together. She is a very interesting person and we talked like we met on a regular basis. 

Gaelyn is the one who explained about the Grand Escalante Staircase. There are a couple of entrances down by Kanab and one up by Escalante but they are not marked on the road as entrances. You really have to know where you want to go in advance and be sure the weather is going to be okay. If you read one of her more recent blog posts, she and another ranger went there on a job assignment so she of course took some great pictures.

The next morning, we packed up and headed back around to Zion National Park.