RoVing Walkers: Zion National Park

Sunday, September 1, 2024

Zion National Park

September 1, 2024

Today was Day 3 of our tour, and we took a motorcoach bus to Zion National Park. The motorcoach picked us up at the campground at 8:00, and we picked up our tour guide in Springdale before we entered the park. It was really nice to have the additional information that she gave us. We went through the south entrance and past the visitor's center to Zion-Mount Carmel Highway.

The bus took us through the tunnel, which from what I understand will no longer be open to large vehicles soon.

The view through on of the 'windows' that are in the tunnel. When they built the tunnel they did the 'windows' first and then blasted out the tunnel laterally. Back in the day people were allowed to stop at the 'windows' and look at the view and have a picnic. Not anymore!

We made a stop along the way to stretch our legs.

Our motorcoach.

Then we continued on to Checkerboard Mesa.

We turned around and went through the tunnel again. It has a clearance of 13'1" in the middle, so they have to stop traffic coming the opposite way so we could take up the whole tunnel. We stopped below the tunnel where we could see a couple of the 'windows' in the tunnel.

The scenery is so beautiful and so hard to capture in a picture!

We saw some big horn sheep standing on the top of the mountain.

We then went on Zion Canyon Scenic Drive to Zion Lodge, where we had a nice lunch provided for us. During Spring through Fall the Scenic Drive is open only to shuttle buses and tours like ours. Everyone else has to park south of the Scenic Drive and take the shuttle buses in. Two of the most popular trails, Angels Landing and The Narrows start at the Lodge. We didn't have the time or energy to do either one! John went with some others from our group on a hike north of the lodge, and I went for a stroll on a flat trail behind the lodge. These pictures are from my stroll.