Days 35, 36, & 37: Travel, Zion National Park & Bryce National Park

Day 35: 

Tuesday we drove from the OK RV Ranch to Mt, Carmel, UT which is our base to visit Zion National Park and Bryce National Park. Before we could drive, I had to purchase our shuttle tickets for Zion. They are limiting the number of shuttle tickets sold due to Covid and I was told you had to buy your tickets at 9 am sharp as they sell out within the first few minutes. It was a little nerve-wracking, but at 8:55 am I was on my computer logged on to the national park site ready and waiting to hit purchase. We got our four tickets and Lucy said, “wow, that’s almost kind of like an auction.” I don’t even know how she knows what an auction is.

The drive was about six hours total. Sometimes these travel days are restful for the family, except for Jordan who is hauling 11,300 lbs behind us. For the record, I always offer to drive – at least short sections – to give him a break. He has never taken me up on the offer. The park we are staying at is small, but it works for our needs. When we arrived though the electrical box was smoking which was disconcerting, but the owner (whose name is Lucy!), was very attentive and we haven’t had any problems. We are meeting the nicest people on this trip.

Day 36: 

When you purchase your shuttle tickets for Zion, you are basically buying an hour window in which you can board your first shuttle. The first option was 7 – 8 am. That seemed a little early for my crew, so I decided to buy the 8 – 9 am time slot. Most of the national parks we have visited, we were able to drive our car through so we would pack lunch in a cooler to eat whenever we found a spot or got hungry. Since we weren’t going to be in our car most of the day, we packed peanut butter sandwiches in our camelbacks and headed out. I have to give the park service a lot of credit for how they have adapted during Covid. Seats had removed from the shuttle so that people were spaced out and weren’t tempted to crowd in on the shuttle. Masks were also required for entry on to the shuttle.

Our first stop was the Riverside Walk. This walk takes you along the Virgin River to the spot where hikers depart for the Narrows hike. The Narrows hike looks amazing and Jordan and I kept going back and forth as to whether or not we should do it with the kids. You have to rent special shoes (the smallest size were one size too big for Lucy) and hiking sticks as the hike is up the Virgin River. The river currently has some algae bloom which, if ingested, could be dangerous. Multiple sites I read said kids will fall in the river at some point and I thought, “there is no way my kids fall down in this river and don’t drink the water,” so we passed on this hike. This was the first experience of the trip that Jordan and I were upset we “missed” out on. We looked like kids who lost their dog watching all the other people take off down the river. This hike is the most popular in Zion, and I think if we had known from the start of our trip we were coming here we could have been better prepared with supplies (i.e. waterproof hiking boots), but we thought we were going to be in California right now so we were not prepared at all. At about 9:30 am we already decided that we will be coming back when the kids are older so we can experience more of Zion.

After the riverside walk, we got back on the shuttle to head towards the lodge and do the lower emerald pool hike. As we were walking across the lawn of the lodge to the trailhead, a little boy came running over saying, “Lucy! Lucy!” He had a baseball cap and mask on so I couldn’t place him. My first thought was, “is a kid from her preschool here?” and so I asked him his name. He replied, “Jack!” like I should have known. When I looked behind Jack, I saw our “neighbors” from the park in Heber City, UT (the guy I went to HS with and his family) standing right there. I can’t believe we ran into them again! In all of Zion, to be at the same place at the same time was such a crazy coincidence. The kids were elated! I told Jordan later that either we are meant to be friends with these people or they are going to get a restraining order against us thinking we are stalking them. They were planning on doing the upper emerald pool hike so we hiked together for a while before we turned back to eat lunch. The lower emerald pool hike takes you behind a waterfall. The waterfall wasn’t particularly heavy as the park ranger said they have had about “five minutes of rain since April,” but it was still a magnificent sight to see.

We had lunch on the lawn of the lodge. Zion is the most beautiful national park we have visited and it was also the most crowded. Jordan said it was the “Disneyland” of national parks. I think the shuttle system and the crowds caused him to make that comparison. After lunch, we ran into the gift shop (I get Christmas ornaments from places we visit. Our first ornament from vacation was one Jordan and I picked up in Carmel, CA in 2011) and then grabbed the kids some ice cream. Our kids have had more ice cream on this trip that any other period in their life. We were going to take the bus back to the Visitor’s Center and do the Pa’rus trail, but that trail is 2-3 hours and I was worried about time given that we had another 1 hour hike planned later in the day. Instead, we did a short hike called the Grotto and caught the shuttle bus to the Visitor’s Center. At this point, we grabbed our truck and took the 4 minute drive into Springdale. Springdale is awesome and I wish we could have spent more time there. The next time we come with the kids we plan to stay here. We tried to go to Zion Brewing for a quick snack, but they were closed for maintenance. So, we grabbed a quick snack at the market next door, and then headed to the Canyon Overlook. I’m always impressed by the kid’s abilities on these hikes. Canyon overlook required a lot of handholding and reminders that we weren’t getting close to the edge. I considered it practice for the Grand Canyon. This hike was strenuous, but not as strenuous as the one we did in Yellowstone. Once we descended from the Canyon Overlook trail it was 5:30 pm. We still had a 45 minute drive “home” and we were all very dirty and hungry. We made the decision to grab food on our way home instead of cooking. After a quick search we found a pizza place nearby and thought “this will be great!” Unfortunately, it took over 30 minutes to make the pizzas so we probably could have gone home and eaten more quickly. While we were waiting, the man behind the counter asked what we had done in Zion. When we told him “Riverside Walk, Lower Emerald Pool, Grotto, and the Canyon Overlook” he said “all today?! No wonder y’all are so hungry!” According to the kids watches Hudson took almost 22,000 steps and Lucy took almost 24,000. I had climbed over 90 flights. It was a very full day, but we didn’t even see half of what we would have liked to in Zion hence the planning to come back for several days when the kids are older

We all crashed hard after showers.

Day 37: 

Jordan and I decided we weren’t going to rush to get to Bryce so we didn’t set our alarms. I woke up at 7:15. For those that know me well you know this is very late for me! I’m almost always up by 5:30 which tells me I was very tired! 

We didn’t leave for Bryce until 9:30 which put us at the trailhead ready to do our 3 hour hike at 11. I don’t know what it with us and starting hikes at 11. We followed the suggestion of a web site and linked together 2 hikes into one longer hike. This was our most advanced hike yet! It was just under three miles, but at the end you ascended over 500 vertical feet on switchbacks. The Wall Street slot Canyon was amazing though and while we had to stop to take breaks (and photos!) it was well worth the effort. We hit up two more viewpoints in the park and headed home around 3. Unfortunately, we were stopped on the road due to construction and we didn’t get to our RV until 4:45. After two full days of hiking, everyone found their corner of the RV and zoned out for an hour before dinner. 

While we weren’t initially planning on coming to Utah at all this trip, after two weeks here we have fallen in love with the state. Life has a way of working out and I’m so thankful we “had” to detour to Utah. We will definitely be back. In fact, our latest retirement idea involves a condo in Park City. Ha!

Tomorrow is a travel day to the Grand Canyon. In my head, the Grand Canyon marks the “last part” of our trip. We will be there for a week and then Big Bend for a week before we make it home on Oct. 17. If I’m being completely transparent, I’m feeling very conflicted about coming home. I know it is time and that we will all appreciate the creature comforts our spacious, modern home will provide, but I’m a little sad our adventure is ending. I’m also not looking forward to the indefinite limbo we seem to be in regarding our move to Angola. We know we are going, but we don’t know when. As a planner by nature, this is hard for me. I think “Life on The High Way” is a great distraction for me from the waiting game we seem to playing at home.

Until next time…

Sarah