July 4 – Zion National Park – Elsie's Travel Blog

July 4, 2016 – Zion National Park
We left the hotel near Bryce at 8am to travel 78 miles to Zion National Park. We stopped once 12 miles from the east entrance for a restroom break. The ride into the park was through towering walls of sandstone that have been sculpted by the wind. We had to wait to go through the main tunnel on the park entrance road because it isn’t wide enough for a bus to go through with other traffic. In the tunnel air hole windows were cut which have great, but brief, views of some of the valley walls.
When we came out of the tunnel there was a succession of switchbacks as we descended into the valley. Once on the main road the bus let us off at the Lodge. Shuttles are used to transport people around the valley to the various hiking areas. We hopped on a shuttle and went to Temple of Sinawava to take the Riverside Walk which is 1 mile each way. It was shady and cool as we walked in. When we walked out at noon it was sunny and hot.
We had a nice group lunch at the lodge. We had an hour and a half after lunch to wander so we took the Emerald Pools trail to the lower falls. (.6 miles each way) It was hot and had some steep hills so we didn’t go further. After returning to the lodge we took the shuttle to the museum where we were to meet the bus at 3pm. We were 20 minutes early. There was a ranger with a high powered telescope pointed to where a mother and baby condor were. We each got a chance to see them.
We headed back to our hotel near Bryce. We got back at 5:15pm. Our Cowboy show and dinner is at 7pm so I am posting this before dinner. I’ll post tomorrow about the dinner, the show, and the fireworks.
Tomorrow we head to Page Arizona stopping first at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

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