Zion Is Another Name for Heaven

Day 19 of our adventure, we woke up at Lake Powell in Arizona. Despite the morning chill, we took a short bike ride down to the shore. This was the strangest lake we’d ever seen, situated in an otherworldly landscape made up of varying shades of gray and brown, hulking rock formations that lined the water, and shadows of distant mountains on the horizon. The one thing we learned from our limited exploring there was that you really probably should not cliff jump. The National Park Service displayed a sobering poster with a brief photo essay showing what happened to one poor soul who did. A friend had taken pictures of the jump, and the final image just showed the water where he landed and did not resurface. That kind of messaging works well on the Cramer Crew.

 It wasn’t the cheeriest start to our day, but we were doubly excited to get to our next camp just outside of Zion National Park. Not only were we looking forward to the renowned beauty and adventure that awaited us at the park, but we would be meeting our friend Margaret and Uncle Ty there as well. We weren’t sure we could take the most direct route into the park from Lake Powell because the road might not have been RV friendly, and we’d read of a tunnel at the eastern entrance that required a special permit and a lot of hoopla we didn’t think we wanted to deal with. We needed more time for research first. 

So we drove the long way around the mountains and scary tunnel, taking Route 89, which transits the Arizona Strip between the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument and the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. The Arizona Strip was yet another cool new place we learned about for the first time on our trip. Separated from the rest of Arizona by the Grand Canyon, the Strip is one of the most isolated, rugged, and remote landscapes in the lower 48 states. The area contains human artifacts dating to around 8,000 years ago. European explorers reached the south rim of the Grand Canyon in 1540, but it wasn’t until 1776 that Spanish Missionary Father Escalante passed along the north rim. Though it was a gorgeous drive, we can see why not many people chose to settle down there. 

When we arrived at our camp in Springdale, Utah, Uncle Ty was already there waiting for us. After lunch in our teeny tiny “crampsite” – being this close to the park had its trade-offs – we hopped on our bikes and rolled across a bridge into the park on what happened to be the first day of National Park Week. All national parks that day had free admission, so it was well-attended. We snaked through the crowded visitors’ enter area then craned our necks at the soaring red cliffs and impressive mountains that surrounded our 3 mile creek-side Pa’rus trail ride. 

We couldn’t go too far, because we needed to get back to Wifi in order to claim our spots on the infamous Zion Shuttle. The next morning we had planned to do the Narrows hike, and the shuttle was the only way we knew of to reach the trailhead 8 miles into the park. The spots were tough to nab even before Covid, and the next batch of seats were due to be released at 5 that evening. Jess had already tried twice during earlier release windows and failed to secure seats for us. We made it back to the entrance about 15 minutes before 5 and decided we should pick up our gear for the hike. More on that in a minute. Before they’d even give us our gear, the outfitter wanted to know if we had a way to get to the trailhead. We explained we were going to try again to get shuttle tickets in a few minutes when more were available. The friendly woman helping us told us we should wait until we definitely had seats on the shuttle, or, if we wanted, we could instead ride on a private shuttle. We asked for the wifi password for the store and sat down on a nearby bench to wait until the stroke of 5:00 to see if we would be lucky enough to score the magical shuttle tickets. It was like hoping to unwrap Willie Wonka’s golden ticket! We were sitting in a bed with all four of our grandparents…no, we were sitting next to a couple also trying on Narrows gear and we asked if they had shuttle tickets already. The woman laughed, “Oh no, we just got tickets on a private shuttle after hearing what a nightmare it is to try and get the Zion shuttle, and we have tried already a few times and never gotten them!” That sealed the deal. We walked over to the private shuttle vendors and promptly booked ourselves spots with Red Rock Shuttle Co for the next day. A brief note for anyone planning on visiting Zion: it is the most visited national park and has been seeing record-breaking guests during Covid. The only way to drive into the park is if you’re staying at the official Zion Lodge, otherwise it’s the free but impossible-to-score shuttle. Red Rocks shuttle was well worth the money, as you can ride anytime throughout the day as many times as you want, not to mention the drivers are real characters! Just a little taste of a couple of the drivers we had: one was a former park ranger/PhD botanist and another raised prize winning Great Danes and played football for Woody Hayes at Ohio State. Another driver was a direct descendent of one the first park rangers in Zion. So, we had some interesting rides the next day.

Back to the gear for the Narrows. With tickets in hand, we went to the Zion Outfitters to get outfitted. Hiking the Narrows in Zion is a unique experience, where you actually hike through the Virgin River in the canyons. The water can be ankle deep or waist deep, so it is recommended to use special equipment you can rent for the day. The gear includes a full-body dry suit that zips to the neck for the kids, and chest high waders for adults. It also comes with neoprene socks and hiking shoes that are extra-grippy. Finally, the outfit is complete with a large wooden walking stick to help you keep your balance. Actually, the outfit was complete with Uncle Ty’s smart thinking – the grown ups put their cell phones in the zip lock baggies he brought to keep them dry (you might notice some of our pictures are a little blurry). The outfitter preferred people try on the suits and shoes to ensure proper fit ahead of time, and the website stated you can pick up your gear the day before in case you want to get an early start, as the canyon can get crowded. Trying on all the gear was a hoot, as it is tightly fitting and a lot to deal with. It was an even funnier sight watching us ride bikes back into camp. By that time, Margaret was just arriving and we decided to have a cookout for dinner over an open fire. Luckily, Margaret had booked a tent site, right on the river, and she had much more room than our sardine can site, so we hauled the food, lanterns, and picnic stuff down to her bucolic sight and had a lovely dinner. The boys made the fire and cooked burgers and dogs (some vegetarian). It was soooo great to see our friend and family (and we were overdue for some adult conversation)!

Early the next morning, we headed out to catch our Red Rocks Shuttle and hike the Narrows. It was a cold morning so we were extra happy to have all the special equipment with jackets and sweatshirts underneath. When you get to the trailhead, there is a mile walk to get to the river and then you can hike back into the canyon as far as you’d like for 8 miles one way. There were quite a number of people on the trail to the river and then a fair number joining us in the frigid water of the Virgin River. The shoes are designed to get wet and the socks are designed to keep you warm(ish). One oversight on our part was that our hands were really cold, especially since the boys got wet almost immediately. Their bodies stayed dry though! We forged deeper into the canyon and deeper into the water. It was fun and funny: we wobbled all around the rocky bottoms and learned quickly to stop walking when you wanted to see something along the way, like the huge cliff walls, cascading waterfalls, rock art and birds swooping and soaring. The further out we got, the less people we saw, but I think we only really made it out about 2 miles, as it was slow going, and there was so much to see all around us. Our turning point came when Sammy fell and hurt his leg, and we all had visions of how it would work with Cramer piggy-backing him home. Luckily, Sammy rallied, we all had a well deserved snack, then tromped back through the waters. It was a lot faster going with the current!

When we returned the gear, all we wanted was some lunch and pool time, so that’s exactly what we did! After some rest and relaxation pool-side (another benefit of our campground), we decided to head back into the park to make the cost of Red Rock Shuttle worth it! The Emerald Pools trail was supposed to be short and sweet. We ended up doing the long and sweet version. It was the magic hour in the evening, and we rounded vistas and climbed up cliffs. We glimpsed the pools and the waterfalls, and finally made it back to our shuttle stop, where we didn’t have to wait long for a ride but it was a packed shuttle since most of the shuttles stop running after 7pm. Again, we were hungry and ready to relax, so we decided to eat out that night at a cute little restaurant that was formerly a gas station called the Whiptail Grill. We had beers and tacos and toasted to our fun adventure day.

The next morning, Margaret decided to rent a bike, since we all had our own, and you can bike throughout the whole park (and not deal with the shuttles!). Right across the street from our campground is a bike rental company with E-bikes: electrical assist bikes. Score! The boys were enthralled and took turns tearing around the campground going 20 miles per hour while the rest of us got ready to go on a bike ride. As we mentioned, it’s about 8 miles up the mountain road one way, and it is mostly uphill on the way into the park. Also, once you get onto the roadway where only shuttles are allowed, the bikers must yield to the shuttle, which means you have to stop riding and put one foot down on the ground and only then will the shuttle pass you. Needless to say, it was a lot of starting and stopping, but that gave us plenty of opportunity to look around at the beautiful scenery that we had passed riding the shuttle the day before. It was way better on bikes! We took little breaks at each pull off and again marveled at the mountains and cliffs. There is an infamous hike in Zion called Angel’s Landing that is a 3 mile hike up the side of a cliff and out onto a steep precipice and plunging edges with catastrophic drops on both sides with only a chain to hold onto. Many hikers we had met throughout our visit to the park were recommending the hike, and none of them had children with them. There was NO WAY we were doing that hike, especially after watching the distant, tiny ant-line of people winding their way up the cliff. Once the boys saw what was involved from below, they were convinced NOT to do it.

Jess spent the majority of the ride looking for California Condors. One of shuttle drivers had let us know there was a nesting pair on the backside of Angel’s Landing. In hopes of seeing the pair, we rode our bikes way further than we had planned, all the way to Big Bend on the backside of Angel’s Landing. Sadly, there were no condors out and about, but it was still a beautiful ride and the way home was smooth sailing DOWN to the entrance and town. And once again, after returning from our longer-than-anticipated adventure, all we wanted to do was get lunch and lounge by the pool, again.

It was our last evening all together at the campground, so we cooked up a big spaghetti supper and again ate at Margaret’s scenic camp sight where we were joined by some very bold mule deer. A small group of about 4-5 deer jumped up from the river bed into our campsite and started grazing mere feet from us. They continued grazing along the campgrounds and did not seem the least bit bothered by the campers. It was a lovely end to our visit to Zion, as the next morning we were headed to Bryce Canyon and then on the Moab!