Our next destination was Zion National Park. It was a relatively short drive from Bryce Canyon, just 90 miles, and the rain followed us all the way. The park was still really busy, we had reserved the last space in the campground of 178 sites 2 days before.
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| Rain rain rain |
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| Long tunnel under the rocks of Zion |
Once we arrived at the park we only had to shelter in the van for a few hours before the rain went off a little and we could venture out. The road here is closed to private vehicles to protect the park, but there are visitors shuttles that drive up and down the road stopping at every trailhead and viewpoint. We took the shuttle in the late afternoon and managed to squeeze in a short hike to Emerald Pools, another to Weeping Rock, a walk down to see the flooded river and a couple of viewpoints too!
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| Some blue sky by the flooded river |
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| Waiting for the bus |
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| Weeping Rock |
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| Waterfall at Emerald Pool trail - as if we weren't wet enough! |
We decided to stay another day in Zion so that we could do the long hike to Angel's Landing the next day. This is a steep uphill path for an hour or so and then it gets a bit extreme - the last few hundred metres is a narrow rocky precipice with huge dropoffs to either side and has chains to pull yourself up along the rock.
We got about halfway along this section before we got too scared and turned back - the coming down part was the worst! I think we would've been OK except we had overheard the bus driver and a passenger discussing someone who had fallen off the day before and how the search and rescue and ambulances were there for hours etc.
It was also wet and we were up in the clouds so couldn't see much - we decided not to chance it. I sat at the bottom of the chain section and ate my Nutella instead - I needed a rest after making it back down, mostly on my bottom!
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| Starting the hike already up in the clouds |
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| I found a rain shelter! |
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| View down into the valley |
Despite not finishing the hike we still went out for massive burgers that night. It felt like we were back in Vietnam, where we used to waddle home every night after eating too much. This time we got the free shuttle bus back to our camp!
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| Rosie with a giant raspberry iced tea |
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| Photo of a giant kitchen roll - for Dad! |
The campsite was much quieter tonight. There is only one road through the park and we heard that the tunnel along the road is closed by flooding so some people probably can't make it. The road south to Grand Canyon is also closed. I'm not sure we've actually been anywhere where the road was open yet!!
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| The river just keeps getting higher and higher! |
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| Another deer comes to visit the campsite |
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| September 11th in Zion |
Angels Landing looks brilliant! That kitchen roll, I could get through that in a day no trouble. Shame about the rain and the floods but you were complaining recently that there was no water in the waterfalls - lucky though that you didn't go into Colarado.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I guess we can't have it both ways! And our van this year is much better for hiding out from the rain, we can even climb through from the front to the back section. Last year we had the 'dog cage' so we couldn't!
Deletekeep it up Marie! I'm not missing a post!You're having an awesome trip.. it makes me wanna pack my stuff and leave right away!
ReplyDeletePs. it hasn't stopped raining on this side of WA!
Excellent, thank you! And you should. You could try Cape Le Grand just past Esperance, that can't be too far from you!
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