Glendale and Zion

Yesterday we drove around Zion National Park from Hurricane to the small community of Glendale, UT that lies between Zion and Bryce Canyon National Park. Our intention is to visit those two parks plus the north rim of the Grand Canyon. We are staying in a nice little RV park called Bauer’s Canyon RV Ranch.

Today we got up early and, with Arnie on board, headed south for the 20-mile drive to the entrance to Zion. The drive into the park made an impression on Sue that follows.

Driving into Zion Canyon it’s as though someone where making a giant batch of vanilla fudge. She stirs in different ingredients for a variety of flavors. First she chooses cinnamon. As she begins to stir, suddenly it hardens. Lines of cinnamon freeze into place forming towering rock cliffs. Sometimes the cinnamon gets totally integrated producing one cinnamon shade before it hardens. Other times she chooses mint for her candy and it gets totally mixed in before it hardens, forming mint green layers. At other times, in other places, you see that she has used cocoa; and then as she pours, it once again hardens producing a tower of delectable fudge! Visiting Zion is truly a delicious experience.

Entering Zion from the east we passed through a mile-long tunnel that had a maximum height in the middle of 13’ 1”. Although RVs can pass through this tunnel with the aid of an escort and a $15 fee, the See Ya is too tall even for that. Sue and I agreed that they ought to eliminate this service because it greatly slows traffic through the tunnel and RVs could still enter the park from the west.

Arnie’s presence limited our exploration of the park but we knew that there was one paved trail in the park where he could walk. When we arrived we parked at the Visitor’s Center and found that we could tour the major portion of the park via the shuttle buses that run frequently. It was a cool morning, so we were able to leave Arnie in the Escape and set out on a tour of the canyon formed by the Virgin River.

Because the shuttles run about every eight minutes, it was possible to get off at a point of interest and then catch the next shuttle to continue our tour. We boarded the shuttle at the Visitor’s Center and rode it into the canyon exiting first at a spot called the Court of the Patriarchs. We climbed the short path to a view point where we had a great view of the three peaks known as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. (By the way, the name of the park came from Mormon settlers and many of the park’s features have biblical names.)

We next stopped at Big Bend, the next to last stop, where we had views of Angel’s Landing and The Great White Throne. There is a trail that goes to the top of Angel’s Landing, but Arnie’s presence prohibited our taking that trail. An additional factor was that there are spots on that trail that I wouldn’t have the courage to cross!

We got back on the shuttle and rode the rest of the round trip back to the Visitor’s Center. We picked up Arnie and set out on our three-mile round trip walk along the bike path that runs through the valley. It was a pleasant walk along the Virgin River with great views and a nice lunch spot on the river.

By the time we got back to the Visitor’s Center we were all ready to head back to the See Ya. So it was back through the tunnel east on route 9 and north on route 89 to Glendale.

Oct 12, 2009

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