Day Six
Saturday, June 23, 2018
Watchman Campground
Megan and I woke up to the tent billowing and swaying in the wind! She was being attacked by tent fabric and I wondered if we were going to lift off the ground like the house in the movie, Up!
I had trouble getting the stakes pounded into the ground the night before, so it was no surprise to find most of them all pulled out, with the tent caved in on a couple sides, one of which was Megan’s side. No wonder she woke up! I attempted to pound the stakes back into the ground so I could go back to sleep for a bit, but it was just too hard for the standard issue plastic tent stakes we had back then. I figured the tent would not blow away with us in it, so I gave up on the tent stakes and tried to go back to sleep.
I should note that despite the appearance of guy lines attached to the rainfly, we never used them back then. I don’t even know why they were attached if we weren’t using them. That’s just where they were. Eventually, we did learn how useful and necessary they are in the wind and we use them all the time, along with multiple types of stakes. I’m going to blame it on the lack of road trip tent camping videos and blogs available at the time. We didn’t know what we didn’t know!
The wind gusted up a few more times until I finally decided it was time to get up and take the tent down. Our camping experience at Zion Watchman Campground had been less than stellar. After our experience with the noisy campers from the night before, I really hadn’t been expecting much, but the gusty wind didn’t improve my opinion of the place. The only consolation was seeing a deer nibbling grass behind our tent, but as far as campgrounds go, this one was just not for us. I could’ve easily skipped that night in exchange for another night at the Grand Canyon.
First Things First
Our first order of business for the day was to find a parking spot at the visitor center. I had read that it was important to get there early, or there would be nowhere to park. The lot was only half full at 7am on a Saturday morning, so that seemed like a good sign! Maybe things were looking up!
I had also read about the long lines for the shuttle, but apparently I did not see the warning to get in line well before 7am when the Springdale shuttle deposits a busload of people at that stop. Oops! We determined that the line wrapping around the outside of the visitor center looked like it would take a good two hours. Even if that estimate was high, it had to be at least a one hour wait. Either way, standing in line with that many people did not look like a good time.
I had read a tip where you could take the Pa’Rus Trail to the museum to board the shuttle. My understanding of the tip was that we’d get on ahead of the visitor center guests and be guaranteed a seat. None of us wanted to stand in a line with hundreds of other people, so we decided it was worth a shot.
Pa’rus Trail
The Pa’rus Trail was very easily my favorite part of our day at Zion. We started off by walking past the South Campground, which looked like it might be the more ideal campground for tent camping. At the very least, it looked more peaceful from the trail.
If I were to ever visit Zion again, I would walk the Pa’Rus Trail all the way to its’ end at Canyon Junction. It was quite possibly the most peaceful and beautiful of all the experiences we had in the park. Despite its’ trailhead being located across the road from the visitor center, and next to a campground, there were very few people using it. The whole trail is 3.5 miles, one way, which would be perfect for a morning walk and then hop on a shuttle from there to ride into the canyon. Next time…
We were on a mission, though, so at the fork in the path, we took the Museum Trail over to the museum shuttle stop.
Not So Fast!
We arrived at the museum, only to find out that shuttles stop there after the visitor center, which meant standing room only! That was a bummer, but there were maybe only 20 or so people waiting in line at that stop, so we didn’t have to wait long before we were on our way into the canyon.
We couldn’t see anything while standing in the aisle, but after people got off at a few stops, we were able to get seats. From those seats, we could at least see out the windows to one side, but it was not a great way to take in 45 minutes worth of scenery. Unfortunately, the Zion shuttle is the only way to experience the scenic drive into Zion Canyon in the summer, unless you stay at the park lodge.
We took the shuttle the way to the end, to the Temple of Sinawava, with the plan of checking out the rest of the stops on our way back out of the canyon.
Riverside Walk
After a quick restroom break at the trailhead, we came out find an entire busload of tourists standing around, all wearing matching brightly colored t-shirts and name badges. Luckily, a bunch of them had the same plan to use the restroom before heading down the path, so we were able to get ahead of the pack.
The one mile walk along the river was pretty, especially the rock wall with lush green plants growing out of the red rock. That was one of the most striking things about the park that we had not seen elsewhere in our Utah travels.
We also saw multiple people with walking sticks heading toward the Narrows. Slogging through water with hundreds of other people does not seem like a good time to me, but we enjoyed looking around the area. It really was a beautiful place, even with so many people. We took a few photos and headed back to wait for the next shuttle.
Weeping Rock
Our next stop was the Weeping Rock Trail, where we came across a ranger who happened to have Junior Ranger books. She offered to give a ranger talk, if we had the time, so we took her up on it! We enjoyed her talk and learned about how a young boy had tried to get logs down from the top of the canyon.
This area was also beautiful with lush green plants growing out of the rock. The Navajo sandstone is porous, so the water seeps through it. The little trickles appear to weep from it, giving it the name “Weeping Rock.”
The Grotto
Each feature required a shuttle ride to get there, plus a wait for the next shuttle to pick us up again, so when we reached the Grotto, we decided to hike the Grotto Trail to Zion Lodge, rather than take the shuttle. I think we only saw one couple the entire time on that trail, so it was peaceful, even if it wasn’t the most exciting trail in the park. The Zion Lodge area was packed with people, so we made a beeline to the gift shop to cool off before catching a shuttle to the next stop.
Court of Patriarchs
The Court of the Patriarchs was a quiet walk up to a viewpoint where we could see three peaks towering over the park from across the road. We had the place to ourselves, but there wasn’t a lot to do at this stop, so we didn’t stick around long.
Human History Museum
By this point we were hot, and ready to be done with Zion, so we skipped the Canyon Junction stop and went to the Zion Human History Museum where we watched a short film about Zion National Park. The kids finished up their Junior Ranger books and I enjoyed a quick nap in the A/C. One more shuttle ride took us back to the visitor center.
Usually, we get great rangers who like to chat while they check over the books and hand out the badges, but the ranger we found must have drawn the short straw that day. He was parked at a table all on his own and wanted to talk about mountain lions in the park. I had to tell him twice that we were on our way out and were ready to turn in the Junior Ranger books. I’m fairly certain we were in the right place for Junior Rangers, though, because he had the badges at the table with him.
Leaving Zion National Park
After a quick look around the gift shop where Megan found a National Park coloring book for $4.95, we started making our way out of the park. The drive out was not nearly as busy as the rest of the park, so we were able to stop at several pullouts for pictures. I had the Overlook Trail on my to-do list, but we were hot and wore out, plus there were no open parking spaces, so we skipped it. Maybe next time!
Megan fell asleep, which is notable because she’s never been good at napping in the car. She missed out on what I thought was the best scenery of the whole park!
We had to wait quite a while at the Mt. Carmel Tunnel, which was fine with me because I could enjoy the view and take pictures without needing a pullout.
The best part of visiting Zion National Park was leaving the park. It’s a bold statement, that I’m sure the folks who recommend 4-5 days in the park, would not agree with, but this was just not the park for us. I’m glad we visited, but I just cannot imagine spending more than a day in this park.
Despite spending 90 minutes of the day riding the shuttle and at least another 60 minutes waiting to be picked up by the shuttle, we managed to we hiked four miles on 3 trails that day. At that time, four miles in one day was a lot of miles for us! We departed the park at around 4pm, ready to sit in the cool truck for a while.
The Rock Stop
On our way to Bryce Canyon, we spotted a shop in Orderville, UT that we had seen on a Justin Scarred video on YouTube. Aptly named, The Rock Stop is a uniquely shaped building, filled with rocks of all sizes. We had to check it out! We picked out several rocks, including one large piece that looked like all the rock we had been seeing along the way. The gal who helped us told us all about where the different rocks came from and what they were called. She was such a nice lady and we chatted with her for probably an hour before finishing up our rock purchases. She also served fresh made soft serve ice cream, so we ordered twists in waffle cones to go. YUMMY!
After stopping to shop for rocks, we drove though the Dixie National Forest, which is a gorgeous transition between Zion and Bryce Canyon. It looked like it would be worth exploring more if we ever make it to that area again.
Bryce Canyon National Park
We continued on to Bryce Canyon National Park. We had killed an hour choosing the perfect rocks, but we discovered that the Bryce visitor center was open until 8pm, so we had plenty of time to get there and look around. We arrived around 7:30 and picked up Junior Ranger booklets that appeared to be the toughest ones yet. They actually had books geared for age 14 and up and were happy to have teens and adults who were interested in doing the books. I decided to work on my own book to earn a badge, since Bryce Canyon has always been my favorite place, and I had been waiting twenty-some years to get back there.
We left the visitor center shortly before 8 and decided to go have a quick peek at the scenery. We stopped at Sunset Point, which oddly enough, the ranger said was not the best place for sunset viewing. You would want Bryce Point for a sunset and Sunset Point for a sunrise. We were not staying for a sunset though…just a look-see to make sure it still looked the way I remembered it and it did! There is something so fascinating about the hoodoos, which are the rock formations found in Bryce Canyon. This was what we had been driving for days to see!
Since the plan was to spend the next day hiking among the hoodoos, we just looked at the one overlook and headed out of the park. At this point, I was really wishing I did not have reservations elsewhere. I would’ve loved to have camped at Bryce so we could check out the sunset and maybe do a short moonlight hike or something.
However, both park service campgrounds were not taking reservations that June due to repaving the campground roads. They only had first come, first served sites and since I knew we’d arrive later, and they might be limited, I didn’t want to chance it. Besides, I had found an amazing site for two nights at Kodachrome Basin State Park, and the Utah state parks have showers! The only problem was that it’s a 45 min commute.
IDK Barbeque
We headed out, wondering where to stop for supper along the way. We reached the town of Tropic, which appeared to be all restaurants and motels. After a quick drive-by of the options, we decided on IDK Barbeque, a little mom and pop style restaurant, run by a young couple. Their menu was pretty basic: pick your meal, then your meat and sides. We opted for the one meat meal which came with two sides for $10.99. We all opted for beef brisket which added an extra $1.25. Other options were chicken and a couple variations of pork, but we had been eating the smoked pork I brought along all week, so we were ready for something different. I don’t remember all of the options for sides, but Megan chose macaroni and cheese and cornbread, Joey chose potato salad and baked beans, and I chose baked beans and corn bread. We asked for it to go and it only took them a few minutes to get our trays loaded up.
Home for the Night
Back on the road, we decided that this delightful smelling feast was probably messy, so we would eat it after we set up the tent. We arrived at Kodachrome Basin a little after 9pm. The ranger told us that we had probably the best site in the campground. I had also read that in a review somewhere, so I was excited to be able to reserve two nights. Site 12 is the last loop of the campground and the site has its’ own mini loop with a patch of trees in the middle of the circle, making it seem like we were all alone in the wilderness. Perfect! It’s not that I have a problem with other campers, but after the night at Zion where we were packed in one right after another, with a party group across from us, I was looking forward to two nights of peaceful camping in the desert.
Since sunset had just happened at 8:40, we had plenty of light to see our campsite and figure out the perfect spot to position the tent. Our circle driveway held the picnic table and fire ring and across from that was a huge sandy space with a tiny stream behind it. We have an eleven foot square dome tent that sometimes doesn’t fit in the provided tent pads, but I suspect we could’ve set up at least 3 or 4 tents our size in this site.
Setting up the tent in fine sugar sand was a new experience for us, especially compared to the hard-as-a-rock ground the night before. It had to be about the finest sand I have ever seen! Also a new experience for us was the sign warning about venomous critters in the sand. I was not especially excited to disturb any of them, so I was glad we use a tarp for a footprint. An extra layer between us and them seemed like a very good idea at the time.
The BEST Food in Utah!
Setup was fast and easy in the sand, so we were able to dig into our waiting beef brisket meals while they were still hot. I’m not sure if it was the lack of a good, hot meal in days, or if the food was just that good, but that beef brisket had to be the best restaurant food I have ever tasted! It really hit the spot!
Since we hadn’t camped in a location with showers for what seemed like forever, we drove around the campground to locate the shower house and found it empty. It appeared to be a newer building and as far as showers go, you could not ask for anything better. The shower rooms were at the end of the building with separate restrooms on the sides. I was happy to find an outlet in the restroom where Megan and I plugged in our battery chargers for camera batteries.
I didn’t want to leave the batteries completely unattended, so I sent the kids to shower while I prepared for the next day. It was such a beautiful night to be outside. I refilled water bottles and pulled out the next day’s clothing, all by moonlight. It was so peaceful compared to our night at Zion.
When everyone’s showers were done, we had to wait a while for the batteries to finish charging, so the kids worked on their Junior Ranger books while I studied the map of Bryce Canyon. Eventually, the batteries were done and we headed back to the campsite for the night.