Zion National Park – April, 2009
About once a year, we try to go on a longer family trip. This year we picked Zion National Park in Utah. We rented an RV from Arizona Kachina RV in Phoenix. The RV rental experience was great! The owner of Kachina RV was very thorough at explaining everything we needed to know about operating the RV. I think the kids loved the RV more than the scenery!
We traveled North up I-17 to Flagstaff and then continued North to Page (Lake Powell). From Lake Powell, we drove West to Kanab and then North again to Mt. Carmel Junction. At Mt. Carmel Junction, we turned West on I-9 and that leads into the East entrance into Zion National Park
Important information about RV’s or large vehicles.
If you are driving an RV or an over sized vehicle or towing a trailer, you must be escorted through the Zion National Park tunnel – if you use the East entrance to get in. It really isn’t a big deal, every car gets escorted through, you just have to pay extra if you are driving a large vehicle or RV when you pay the entrance fee. Also, the escort through the tunnel only runs during the day and evening. This means that you should not plan on entering the Park at night from the East entrance if you are driving an RV or large vehicle. We had to take this into consideration because we left Phoenix at around 6 p.m. – meaning we didn’t get to Mt. Carmel Junction until about 1 a.m. So, we could not continue on into Zion National Park, we had to park the RV and wait until the next morning. We stayed at the East Zion Riverside RV Park – it was nicely equipped with power and water hook-ups and the people at the Motel were very nice! Note, you don’t need to worry about the tunnel if you are entering the Park from the west entrance (through Rockville & Springdale).
I suggest either entering or exiting the park through the East entrance. The East entrance is about 1500 feet higher in elevation than the bottom of the Zion National Park canyon. It reminded me a lot of the “slick rock” that you find in Moab, Utah. It is breathtaking when you come out of the longest tunnel and you see the canyon laid out before you. The drive down from the East entrance is on a somewhat windy road, but wow, the scenery as you descend is amazing.
National Park Service South Campground
We stayed at the National Park Service South Campground. It had plenty of RV spaces. It does not have water or power hookups and you can only run the generator for two hours in the morning and two hours at night. These restrictions did not really hamper our visit – we were out hiking during the day anyway! We also enjoyed building a fire every night and making smores. Bring firewood with you if you are camping, you aren’t allowed to gather dry wood in the campground. Sol Foods has firewood you can purchase if you forget to bring some, but it can get expensive if you want to build a fire every night.
From the South Campground it is a short walk to the main Visitors Center, where you catch the buses that take you into the park and to all of the hiking stops. Also, whenever you want to go into Springdale, the nearest town, you can walk a little past the Visitors Center and find the bus terminal for the buses that take you into town. All of the buses are free. The nicest thing about this trip was how easy it was to get around without having a vehicle (we didn’t want to take the RV all over the place). You can also find the Sol Foods grocery store right next to the Town bus depot – a very convenient walk from the Campground to the grocery store came in handy more than a few times.
Springdale
We really enjoyed going into Springdale every day after we got done hiking. I’ve included some links about our favorite places in Springdale. All of the people working at the local businesses were friendly, welcoming and informative. The owner of Zion Cycles spent a good amount of time talking to my son about different things he could do to customize his BMX bike – very nice. Zion Cycles
Another one of our favorite places was the Zion Park Gift and Deli. Yummy ice cream, amazing homemade fudge and a nice gift store all in the same place. We happened to be there on my sons birthday and the teenage girls who worked in the ice cream part of the store went out of their way to wish him a happy birthday – they even sang to him – which made him blush like crazy, but it was very cute. Zion Park Gift and Deli
On our first evening in the park, after hiking to Emerald Pools and exploring the area around the RV park, we ate at the Zion Pizza and Noodle Company. We had heard about this place before we even left Phoenix. Delicious pizza and pasta! Luckily, we got there early in the evening around 5 p.m. – it got crazy busy by 5:30 – so get there early.
We went to many other stores around the town and found friendly people in all of them – you will love Springdale!
Hiking in Zion National Park
There are too many hiking trails for me to tell you about them all. My suggestion is to plan out what hikes you will complete for each day. Don’t get too ambitious. We only made it to Emerald Pools (all three) on the first day. That was probably because we had two children with us, one of whom seems to have an appetite like a hummingbird (high metabolism, has to eat the equivalent of her body weight every day). So after hearing the “I’mmmm hungrryy” complaint all the way back from the hike, we decided to cut our losses and head back to the RV and on to town for dinner).
The next day we made it to Riverside hike, Weeping Rock and the Watchman trail. We took food with us this time, so as not to have a repeat complaining session from our little hummingbird. On the hike up to Weeping Rock, there is another path you can take to Hidden Canyon. We really wanted to do this hike, but it is a steep climb and we didn’t think it was prudent to attempt with our kids in tow. They just get tired too easily (and at inopportune times). We ate lunch at the Zion Lodge on this day. Hot dogs for everyone. The line for food at the Zion Lodge was very long. So if you can – I suggest taking your lunch with you and eating on the grass outside of the Lodge – beautiful views.
On our last full day at the Park, we attempted Angels Landing. I had already decided that we weren’t going to complete this entire hike. The last part of this hike takes you out on a narrow ledge where there are sheer drop-offs on both sides of you. http://www.zionnational-park.com/zion-angels-landing-trail.htm
Even if I could have summoned the nerve to do the last part of this hike myself – I couldn’t stomach the thought of my kids attempting it – so we just decided to go up to a certain point and turn around. Even with that restriction, this was still a beautiful hike. Once we got past the switchbacks, the view from the top was – WOW. A storm moved in when we were hiking Angels Landing and I got some great pics of the storm and clouds from the top of the switchbacks. Here another warning – if it looks like rain – bring ponchos with you on your hike. We only had two ponchos so two of us got soaked to the bone.
I’ve included several links below to sites where you can learn more about Zion and the different hikes you can do. There were so many more that we didn’t have time to get to. I would highly recommend this trip – my family and I are still talking about how much fun we had.
Please drop me a line if you have any thoughts you would like to share about Zion or any questions about the area I might be able to answer.
Map of Zion National Park and surrounding area
Zion National Park campgrounds
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