Cross Country Day 20: Hatch, Utah – Zion National Park – Kanab, Utah

Like Bryce, Zion National Park is spectacular but in a very different way. While Bryce was impressive with its seemingly artistic, sculpted rocks, Zion overwhelms you with its sheer size and grandness. On the ride into Zion, you’re surrounded by enormous, towering rock mountains, some with really unique rocky surfaces. I’ve never felt so small and insignificant in my life. The mountains were so enormous, it was difficult to take pictures and capture everything. I tired my best to capture the sheer magnitude of the mountains, but alas, I feel the pictures don’t do justice to what you experience in person. Couple cool things about Zion. First, there are a number of hikes that you can take that will take you to the top of these mountains. Not suggested for those afraid of heights as a couple have you walking on 3 foot paths with sheer rock ledges on either side while taking you to overlooks with ridiculously high ledge overlooks of the park (one of these hikes took you to “Angels Landing”, a rocky overlook 1500 feet above the canyon floor!). Because of time….we decided not to go on such hikes ;) Zion also utilizes a unique shuttle system, so we could not ride our scooters into the later half of the park. The shuttle system is pretty efficient – one comes every couple minutes to each viewpoint, and we found it very convenient. I wonder if the Yellowstone experience would benefit from such a system.

We left Zion after having visited every viewpoint, and rode 40 miles to Kanab, Utah – a small town on the border of Utah and Arizona. Tomorrow, we will explore our final park of the trip – Grand Canyon National Park!