Zion National Park Day 1 (Road Trip out West Post 10)

We left Bryce Canyon National Park after lunch and drove to Zion National Park.  It was a little less than two hours away.  We drove along the Zion Mt. Carmel Highway.  It is a beautiful, scenic drive!

 

Thanks to our Every Kid Outdoors pass we were able to skip the entrance fee to every national park we visited and we entered for free. 

 

 

Hello Zion!  I knew it would be pretty but I never expected it to take my breath like it did.

 

Along the drive we passed Checkerboard Mesa.

 

 

This was the first of two tunnels we passed through.

 

Just before the entrance to the second tunnel (the mile long tunnel) we stopped to hike the Canyon Overlook Trail.   This trail is outside of the shuttle service so you do not need a shuttle ticket to hike it. 

 

Even though we had already hiked three miles that morning at Bryce we were still eager to get out and hike more.   This trail was listed as a moderate hike and was only one mile round trip. 

 

View of the tunnel entrance down below.

 

 

The views from the overlook were amazing!!

 

You could see our highway down below.

 

I found a shady spot to sit while the boys spent some time climbing over all the rocks.

 

This was a fun hike and a memory maker for sure.

 

Once we reached the bottom we waited our turn to enter the tunnel.  They only allow one direction of vehicles at a time.  This tunnel is one mile long and so cool to drive through!

 

inside the tunnel

Here is a video of us driving out of the tunnel.  The views were gorgeous!

 

According to Waze this is what the rest of our drive looked like.

 

   

 

We made a stop by the Visitor Center.

 

The boys met the park rangers and got their Junior Ranger books.

 

I loved seeing the flag flying in the wind.

 

Cruz also picked up a Zion pin from the Visitor Center gift shop.  He was proud of all three of his park pins and is looking forward to adding a few more to his collection later this summer.

 

We checked in to our hotel in Springdale later that afternoon.  This was the view from our window.

 

The boys wasted no time getting changed into their swimwear and headed out to the pool.

 

fun in the sun

 

That evening we ate supper at MeMe's Cafe.  It was delicious.

 

We made a few stops in town, got ice cream, and then headed in for the night.  We had shuttle tickets for 7:00 a.m. the next morning to get into the park so we needed to try to get all the sleep we could before the busy day we had coming up.  I'll share about our fantastic day of hiking through Zion next.