Zion National Park & St. George UT

Valley of Fire was a wonderful find, but now we're headed to one of the destinations for this trip, the St. George, Utah area and Zion National Park.

We couldn't get reservations camping in the park, but we found a couple of wonderful options just outside of St. George, Utah, about 20 miles from Zion.

The first is the Leeds RV Park and Motel in the small town of Leeds, just northeast of St. George. The site we have is shady, which is nice as it's still warm here. I love small towns, and I'd love to explore, but we've only booked one night here as a layover to an rv park closer to Zion.

The next day, we move to WillowWind RV Park in Hurricane, UT. 

One of our first excursions is to look at houses in the area. We end up in the Dameron Valley area of Utah. I think I'm putting it on my list of places to retire. On the way home, we stop for gas and decide to look for somewhere to have dinner. Looking at Google Maps, we find Chef Alfredo's. We were a little under dressed, but they let us in anyway. Dinner was delicious!

I need a case of that bread sent to me!

   

The highlight of the stay was, of course Zion. Hearing that parking in the park was non-existent by 10 AM, we left early to try to beat some of the crowd. There was a line to get into the park, but not too bad. We found a parking spot, stopped into the Visitors Center for a map, then headed off to catch the shuttle. The shuttle is great, it's free, runs often and takes you to 9 different stops in the park where you can find a number of trail heads and scenic views.

What I found in Zion was unexpected. After seeing so much of the red sandstone in the area, I was expecting more of the same but on a grander scale. What I found was a riot of fall colors along the Lower Emerald Pools trail and a waterfall at the top. 

Water is dripping from the overhanging rocks above

The most northerly shuttle stop takes us to the Temple of Sinawava.  From there we take the Riverside Walk up to the Narrows. We didn't do the Narrows hike because a good deal of the hike is in the river and requires special dress and equipment. 

On the way back down the canyon we take the short hike to Weeping Rock before heading home.