Day Eleven – Towering Cliffs


Today’s trek was through Zion National Park. As we drove from Bryce Canyon National Park down to the East entrance of Zion National Park, we dropped about 2000 feet in elevation and warmed up about 5 degrees to about 40!

When approaching Zion from the east, the road winds up down and around cliffs of buff and pink crosshatched sandstone that look like frozen sand dunes. Then there are slabs of reddish slickrock. On one side of the road the layers are horizontal, but on the other side of the highway the layers might be either vertical or at a steep angle. 

Then you come to “the tunnel”. It is over one mile long and with the exception of a few windows on the canyon, is completely dark. Our rig is a bit over 12 feet tall, so a park ranger had to close traffic to oncoming vehicles to allow us to follow the center line which is only 13 feet 1 inch high. This is supposed to be the last year they will allow oversize vehicles to travel through the tunnel.



Once out of the tunnel, the park has completely different features. There are towering cliffs of Navajo Sandstone in shades of pink, beige, and red that loom above the road which winds down over one thousand feet to the valley floor in a series hairpin turns. The ancient walls are stained with dark desert varnish.

Although cloudy during our stay, the clouds seemed to add a mystique to the looming cliffs. What lay beyond? 

This national park too, was waaaaay too crowded for us. In order to do any of the hikes you have to catch a shuttle bus at the visitor center. Although we were there early, all of the shuttles we saw were filled to capacity including having people standing. We can’t imagine what it is like on a busy weekend because they had row upon row of line separators that would wind back and forth to que people for the next shuttle. Those always make me think of the second Shrek movie where he just walked through all the dividers. I wonder if anyone would notice if I went all "Shrek" and just marched through the dividers?

The majesty of the towering cliffs of Zion makes the draw for tourists totally understandable. Even just driving down the twisting turning road is something to experience, whether you hike further into the canyon or not.

Comments

  1. LoriMay 14, 2025 at 2:34 PM

    I went to Zion also! Was told that people scale the cliffs and sleep on the edge! My gosh.

    ReplyDelete

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