Zion part one

 

Monument Vally, Utah to Zion National Park

Monday June 10 2024

Moving day, we drove about 225 miles today from Monument valley to Zion National Park. The route requires dipping south into Arizona and traveling west before reentering Utah. It was good two lane asphalt road with occasional passing lanes on the hills. We passed the time looking at the scenery and listening to “Deal Breaker”, an audio book by Harlan Corben.

One way traffic in the tunnel

We entered the east entrance to Zion National Park. Our entry fee was covered by our Senior Lifetime America the beautiful pass, but we had to pay a $15 high vehicle tunnel fee. The 1.1 mile tunnel was built in the 1920’s only has a 14 foot height at the center of the arched tunnel. They now alternate between the two directions of traffic. This allows high vehicles like RV’s to ride in the center during their one way traffic passage. 

Waiting for the shuttle

There is some beautiful scenery all along this eastern entrance road, it was worth the 15 bucks to come this way. When you intersect with the main road in Zion, you must turn left to the campgrounds (only one is open), the visitors center or out the main entrance. The main Road aka Zion Canyon Scenic Drive is no longer open to passenger vehicles. Visitors must board a shuttle bus (free) to ride into the canyon. The shuttle has stops at the most prominent mountains and hiking trails. It’s like a hop on-hop off trolley.

visitors parking lot is always full

We stopped at the visitors center and luckily snagged the only available parking spot in the large vehicle lot. The vehicle lot looked full also, but it’s hard to tell, the entrance gates apparently never stop admittance, and the vehicles just go round and round in the lot looking for a parking spot. There are also people rushing every which way, some all decked out in hiking gear and some on rental E-bikes. I'm getting bad vibes about this place, a sea of humanity is not the experience I was hoping for.

Too many people for the likes of me!

I went into the visitors center to seek some information about the park, the place was packed with people. The line at the ranger’s counter was so long I abandoned any hope of speaking with them. Instead, I went to the bookstore and bought a book on the park. I don’t know if it did me any good, but it has nice color pictures!

Typical RV site at Zion River Resort.

After that fiasco we exited the main gate and traveled 14 miles to Zion River RV Park. It’s a very nice park, the RV parking pads and the streets are paved. Between each site are native cottonwood trees for shade and very non-native green grass. What a pleasure it was to sit outside in the evening when the temperatures drop. Lawn chairs in the shade and our feet in the grass. The west is very different than east of the Mississippi and having our feet in the grass was a real treat!

The plan for Tuesday is to enter the park in the morning and take the shuttle into the canyon.