We have arrived at our last of the Mighty 5 National Parks. Zion. From everywhere we looked down in Bryce Canyon, we are now looking up. Zion soars, it’s much warmer here.
Because this is the park closest to Las Vegas, the crowds are larger here. Traversing through the Mount Carmel Tunnel was interesting. The striking cutouts exposing the gorgeous scenery not only provided a good release value for inter-tunnel gases but a welcome relief for the claustrophobic.
Unlike Bryce Canyon, water is what has carved this beautiful land. From sandstone formations on the valley floor, we headed through the Virgin Canyon Gorge. The Virgin River has been a key to this environment, and the tall fir and Ponderosa Pines provide welcome splashes of deep green.
Highway 9, the Zion Mount Carmel Highway, led us by the White Cliffs, Checkerboard Mesa, and to the Kolob Terrace and Hurricane Cliffs.
We also visited the Zion Human History Museum for some great exhibits about human interaction with the geology, water, plants, and animals of the area.
Homeward Bound
From Zion, we headed to Springdale for a great Mexican meal at The Whiptail. Then on Interstate 15 to our final destination in Las Vegas, passing through a corner of Arizona, and the Basin & Range flatlands en route. Before heading home, we had one night in hot Vegas (116 on arrival). Nothing was happening at the Sphere during our brief stay, but if you love magic like we do, the Mat Franco show (at LINQ) was really worth seeing.
I have decided that Bryce Canyon deserves a dedicated post. It was our favorite of the trip. So incredibly spectacular that it’s hard to describe. Mark, our guide, said we had to get in the Park really early. Eating breakfast at 6:30 AM, we were questioning that decision, but it was spot-on.
As we left the hotel, we could still see some smoke in the air from a nearby wildfire the day before. It created a slight haze in one direction. Very few other visitors were around when we entered the Park. It was cool enough for a sweater as we walked along a pretty forested path. And then – wow, we faced one of the most incredible sights I have ever seen. It was breathtaking. And the play of the morning light made the tops of some hoodoos look magically translucent.
Hoodoo Basics
Cliffs erode, creating narrow rock walls called fins, and eventually the fins crack enough to create windows like those at Arches National Park. After a few million more years, the tops of the arches collapse, creating hoodoos.
The Park is just over 9,000’ at its highest, and its snow/ice, freezing/warm temperatures have created its tens of thousands of hoodoos—the world’s biggest collection. The plateau cliffs recede about a foot every 50-60 years, and you can see evidence of Park fencing moved back and trees hanging over the edge.
Best Story of the Mighty 5
Ebenezer Bryce converted to Mormonism and moved to Utah in 1850. At just 18 years of age, he began a church-directed life as a serial homesteader helping settle new communities throughout Utah and Arizona. He is credited with discovering the canyon while searching for a lost cow. He is famously known to have said it was “A hell of a place to lose a cow.” For four years, he lived in the area and built a road into the canyon to harvest timber. Locals called it Bryce’s Canyon, and the name was immortalized in 1928 when the National Park was established.
This is one place I wish I had been able to hike. I would love to have the experience of being at the bottom of the towering formations. There are numerous trails in Bryce Canyon, and we spotted distant hikers moving around way below us. Climbing back up would be quite a challenge.
BTW, for those interested, Bryce Canyon had the best gift shop of any of the Mighty 5 Gift Shops we visited.
If you’d like to see more posts about our visit to the Mighty 5, check these out: Capitol Reef, Arches & Canyonlands
This morning, we packed up and headed southwest towards Capitol Reef National Park. Capitol Reef is a Waterpocket Fold – an actual wrinkle in the earth. Extending almost 100 miles, it took millions of years to form. The shaping, lifting, twisting, and erosion has left us with an amazing array of vistas. Cliffs, domes, arches, and canyons all displayed in a wide-ranging palette of colors and hues only nature can create. Some early visitors thought one of the domes resembled the U.S. Capitol, thus the name.
The big excitement for me this day, was finding out I was going to see petroglyphs. I knew there were others in Utah, but they were farther north and out of the range of this trip. So for me, this was a real bonus.
These rock carvings date from <300-1300 and are believed to be from the ancestors of the Hopi, Zuni, and Paiute tribes. They represent journeys, deities, animals, maps, clan symbols, and calendars. The culture seems to have vanished after 1300. The petroglyphs were hard to distinguish at first. I’m glad we had a guide to help us figure out where they were on the very large rugged cliff wall. (Based on the appearance of some of the figures I’m sure some attention-seeking wackos will claim they are proof of aliens).
We left Capitol Reef, enjoyed a delicious lunch in Torrey, and took the wonderful All American Highway 12 through the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It was a beautiful drive and I was happy to be a passenger for the ride and not the driver. Of note, we also traveled through the Dixie National Forest, which got it’s name from its warmer climate, the Mormon effort to grow cotton, and early Southern settlers.
Utah is a major dinosaur fossil and bone discovery area. At least six new horned dinosaur species have been found within the National Monument. The head of the one shown below was the first to be discovered, and is named Utahceratops Gettyi, after the field paleontologist who found and collected it.
At the end of a long day, we arrived in Bryce Canyon City. Before we turned in for the night, we enjoyed dinner and a show at Ebenezer’s Barn & Grill. This was another big surprise. The food was good (I had excellent salmon) and the country show, featuring the Bryce City Wranglers, Nashville-worthy. It’s a perfect mid-way stopping point on a tour of the Mighty 5.
If you enjoyed this post, you might like to check out more of the Mighty 5: Arches & Canyonlands
The Mighty 5
Moab is the perfect jumping off spot for visiting the Mighty 5 U.S. National Parks of Southern Utah. The Mighty 5 encompass Arches, Canyonland, Capitol Reef, Bryce Canyon, and Zion National Parks. We took a three-day trip with Moab Express, arranged through Rocky Mountaineer (although you can also book directly). Initially, I was worried we might not get to see everything we wanted – but happily, we did.
I’m going to blog about this portion of our trip in three posts, this first about Arches and Canyonlands, followed by Capitol Reef, and finally Bryce Canyon and Zion.
Arches National Park – Minutes Away
After an overnight in Moab, we set off early under direction of our wonderful, relaxed, and efficient guide, Mark. Our van was well equipped with plenty of water, snacks, and phone charging ports. These parks do not have food concessions or many facilities. Bathrooms are at the Visitor Centers and that’s about it.
First up, Arches National Park, home of 2,000 catalogued arches. I’m going to let the pictures tell this story, even though they do not begin to do justice to the majesty of any of these incredible parks.
The “Balanced Rock” Trail circled around this massive fear-inspiring formation seen below. I didn’t linger.
The Most Famous Arch
We got plenty of steps in walking around the arches and formations, but we did not hike to “Delicate Arch”, the iconic image on Utah license plates. As you can see from this photo, the image on the tag is shot from the opposite perspective. It was getting very hot and we were very content to see it from a distance.
Canyonlands
After a picnic lunch outside the Arches Visitor’s Center (arranged and brought in advance by the Moab Express folks), we headed a little over 30 miles towards Canyonlands. Here our perspective dramatically changed from looking up to looking down.
Canyonlands is considered a “wilderness of rock” and is very large, with several entrances. We visited the Island in the Sky section. This area features a broad mesa between the Colorado and Green Rivers. It gets less than 10” of rain a year. The horizon semed to go on forever.
Moab Tips:
In Moab, the Hoodoo Hotel Curio by Hilton was really lovely but don’t stay in room 117! It is over the laundry and one wall and the beds vibrate when the machines are in use (which is very often). It feels pretty much like you are over the engine room on a cruise ship.
The Sunset Grill which is a famous local restaurant was a huge disappointment. It has a wonderful view and an interesting history as the former home of Charlie Sheen the “Uranium King,” but fell short of delivering us a good meal. It turned out to be the only real disappointment on this trip.
Across from the Hilton there is a Food Truck Park with lots of choices, and really delicious gelato.
Be forewarned that Utah has strict liquor laws, including that mixed drinks can only have 1.5 ounce of liquor. And, they won’t serve a second drink until that one is consumed. FYI – my bourbon Old Fashion at Sunset Grill was $25! I should’ve asked for extra cherries.
