We made it to our final park! Zion is Utah’s oldest and most visited national park, established in 1919 and welcoming over 4.5 million visitors a year. And I can see why! The unique array of plants and animals, the once-in-a-lifetime hikes, the amount of activities you can do – the park is truly a wonder.
So it was so unfortunate to see this park as the one to be most affected and stunted by the pandemic. Of course I understand the reasoning to keep everyone safe and healthy – it was just slightly sad to realize half of Zion was closed:
The Kolob Canyons and Terrace areas closed. Angel’s Landing closed. All but one campground closed. The scenic drive closed to all vehicles besides the shuttle. The free park shuttle now costs $1 per ticket so you can reserve a time slot to safely ride the shuttle into the park, but once you go back to the visitor center, you cannot re-enter the park by shuttle unless you have another ticket at a later time (thankfully I planned ahead and got us two different times – one morning and one afternoon). And if you didn’t purchase these tickets ahead of time, you could reserve them at 9am the day before, and it felt like I was trying to reserve a spot in line for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in Disney World (it’s ‘sold out’ almost immediately). It was that high stress. If we didn’t get a ticket, that meant walking 10+ miles one way to the back of the park or renting bikes or a private shuttle that was way more than $1. And these were just some of the changes due to COVID.
Natural disasters were also creating some setbacks. Three of the most popular hikes – Weeping Rock, Hidden Canyon, and Observation Point – were all closed due to rockslides and most likely won’t open for another year or two. The Lower Emeralds Pool trail just opened back up the week before we arrived after it suffered from a rockslide. But the Middle Emeralds Pool trail that connects the upper and lower is still closed.
And to top it all off, The Virgin River, which runs through the whole park and the Narrows, had a toxic algae bloom, and cyanobacteria are present in the water – the bacteria produce a neurotoxin that is hazardous to people if ingested and is deadly to dogs, as one had already died from drinking the water (that is how the park found out I believe).
So, that’s what we were working with headed into Zion. Thought I would get all that out of the way first before we talk about all the beauty we saw and fun we had. A word, though, about the Narrows. The water is hazardous if ingested but is not harmful to the touch, so as long as we didn’t swim or submerge ourselves, we would be okay, and we are! Now onto the pictures!!
Our first Zion adventure of the day was actually The Narrows! Well, it was the shuttle bus ride at 7am to the Temple of Sinawava shuttle stop that leads to the Narrows.
The first mile of the trail is called the Riverside Walk – you take a nice stroll down the paved sidewalk next to the Virgin River. At this point, the canyon is a quarter to a half a mile wide.
We finally get to the mouth of the Virgin River, the “Gateway to the Narrows”.
The water was a bit chilly – 50-65 degrees chilly – but the neoprene socks and water boots definitely help with that!
The first landmark we hit is Mystery Falls, which sounds like a magical, mystical sight, but it’s more like a less-magical trickle down a giant rock. It’s still beautiful though!
The next mile, as we pass by grottos and giant boulders, the canyon walls get narrower and narrower.
One of the pockets of forest along the river 
Wide Angle cameras come in handy when the canyon walls are this tall
I call this next gallery “Pictures of Dani posing in the river”. It wasn’t apparent until I was going through our pictures how many of these actually existed. So please enjoy, and let me know which one is your favorite!
7:50 am 
8:17 am 
8:17 am (a little further away) 
8:31 am 
9:03 am 
9:25 am
The next landmark we hit is Orderville Canyon, about 2.5 miles from the shuttle stop. You can walk down this canyon to another water fall – Veiled Falls. We didn’t take that side hike, but if you have the time, do it!
After about another mile, we make it to the famous Wall Street section of the hike, where the canyons walls get as small as 20 feet apart and soar over 1,500 feet high.
Floating Rock – the telltale sign you have entered Wall Street 
We thought the walk upstream was hard with the water flowing against us as we try and find our footing on all the slippery rocks. But on the way back, it wasn’t the water we were fighting. It was the crowds. Although we started the hike early in the morning, it was after 10:30am by the time we turned around to head back to the shuttle stop 3.5 miles upriver. Word of advice: Try to do this hike as early as possible or during off-season times. It becomes particularly challenging trying to find your footing while staying 6 feet away from people. Masks were a necessity on the way back. Also, because of all of this, there wasn’t much picture-taking.
After the almost 7 miles of hiking through a river, it was time to change our shoes back at the visitor center and go enjoy a rewarding lunch!
The Zion Lodge is the only lodging within the park, and there is a giant tree in the center of the front lawn – the perfect spot to sit and eat lunch and take a much needed break!
We decided to take it easy for the rest of the day and do some of the easier hikes (also we totally forgot our hiking shoes back at the hotel but had some tennis shoes in the car so doing the easy hikes worked out!). The first hike we did was the newly reopened Lower Emerald Pools trail.
You could tell they had just redone parts of the sidewalk that I assume were damaged from the rockslide. Also, as we got closer and closer to the actual ‘pools’ the roar of construction became louder and louder. They are still currently working on the Middle Emerald Pools trail, so I can’t say this was the most tranquil hike we’ve taken. But the views from that first bridge are indescribable.
We get to the “pools”, and I use quotes because these were mere puddles to what they usually look like. I really do believe we went to Utah the week before monsoon season – almost everything that was supposed to have water was dried up. They say the best time to visit the pools is right after spring runoff when all the snow melts or during a rainstorm.
The rock ledge that the water cascades off of was actually really cool. You could see some water streaming down from it, and perhaps if we had gotten the right angle, we could have photographed it better, but the pictures pretty much get the misting that was happening.
I actually walked a little underneath it, and it was super cold! Would have been very refreshing if it was sweltering, but we had a nice overcast day that didn’t get above 100 degrees (and that’s win in our book!).
After this hike, we went back to the hotel for a little nap (doing these action-packed hiking days for a week straight is tiring you guys!), and then headed back to the visitor center for one last hike. Thankfully, the Pa’rus Trailhead is at the visitor center, so we didn’t need another ticket for the shuttle.
This easy 3.5 miles out-and-back hike was a great way to end our last park. It walks you by the river, taking in all the sights Zion has to offer.
The halfway point ends at the Canyon Junction Bridge, where the scenic drive through Zion begins. This bridge is one of the most popular spots for photographs at sunset. The sun hits the canyons and mountains just right, with the Virgin River below. Unfortunately, we were about 2 hours too early for sunset; plus it was yet again cloudy, so I don’t think the golden hour would have been too golden. Regardless, the views were amazing from all the bridges we crossed along the trail.
Oh! And of course I couldn’t forget our friends we saw along the way!
And that’s a wrap on Zion! It was a fun, adventurous, beautiful day, and we will definitely be returning with the entire family next time if for no other reason than for them to experience The Narrows. Hiking through a river is a game-changer.
We have one more day of adventures ahead of us at the start of our drive tomorrow, and then it’s a looooong car ride back to reality. I will be savoring these parks and the experiences for a long time.
STEPS: 34,100
MILES HIKED: ~15
# OF TIMES WE STUMBLED AND/OR FELL IN THE NARROWS: I honestly have no idea – those rocks are SO slippery and that walking stick only helps so much!
Jill and Dani’s Road Trip Adventures 