On the return leg of our national parks tour and following two great city visits of Ogden and Salt Lake City (look for the next blog) we were excited and hyped up by the awesome DoTERRA conference and ready to take on the last two great parks in our tour itinerary, Zion and the Grand Canyon as part of our almost 900 miles (1450k’s) drive back.
Along the route is probably one of the most famous views of this area, Horseshoe Bend, allowing the mighty Colorado river to bend its way around the landscape like a snake around a tree trunk.
This was somewhere I had seen pictures of and it went immediately onto my bucket list of things to see. It is a short, less than half a mile trek from the car park and was incredibly hot with little wind to give us grace from the midday sun. Was this everything I thought it was going to be? Yes and No, yes because it was stunning. No, because I just couldn’t relax to take it in. On parking the car in the parking lot after the three-hour drive from Zion I suddenly
To get really detailed into this wonder site check out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_Bend_(Arizona)
ZION NATIONAL PARK
After a week in a beautiful house in the affluent area of Park City where we were spoiled by comfort and the luxury of our own bathroom and other pleasures, not tonight, we were back to camping in the dust. I had tried to fix Lara’s leak in her air mattress but she woke each morning with a flat as a pancake mattress and a stone sticking in her butt, poor kid.
Tent and dust
Now I joke about the dust and heat but this is actually quite fun…….honestly. The dust gets everywhere and eventually led to us driving two days of our trip in one day to get home to a hot shower but we love the outdoors and so do the kids. They learn so much.
Time for another fire pit and those
Look at his dusty t-shirt
Now we love hiking, Lara loves flat straight and 500yards in and 500 yards out (although she is a trooper at longer ones) and loves them. Me, I like a few miles in and a few miles back but flat is nice. Kristi however, is 5 miles in, 5 miles out and 2,000 feet up, 2,000 feet down and she is happy. Zion’s magnificent water trail is one neither of us had encountered before. It was about a mile on a cement path gently following the river bed before arriving at the start of the canyon where the only way in is to follow the river bed, in the river bed. Zion national park can cater for about 450 car parking spaces in their visitor’s centre, you cannot drive around the park, only take the free shuttle to about 8 different stops and hikes. So if you are not parked by 8.30 you are walking into the park. Kristi was interested in Angel’s Rest because it’s vertical but parts of it are without protection from falling to your death so that was a no-no with kids. For me it’s a
1 mile down, 2 miles to go
Now Lara and I were soon interested, probably because this is an absolute must of a hike, the canyon is simply stunning and areas become so close you will be lucky to see the sun touch the ground. The hike is right up there in our best global hikes, probably only beaten by our very own Abel Tasman in New Zealand.
Lara found dry land 
Time for Charlie/Mama shot 
Time for a rest 
Ashton having a ball 
Canyon walls closing in 
Nearly to our point 
Charlie was not impressed 
One more corner 
Giant canyon walls 
waterfalls everywhere
The stopping point for us was the popular T junction area, about two miles in and taking about two hours, believe it or not. This is where two rivers meet into one and the walls are no more than 20ft apart. We took time to refresh, eat, drink and take in this wonderful site. More energetic BC people (before children) go about another 4 miles in where the water can come chest high, the worse we got was
Now Zion township looks on a map to have
Grand Canyon
If you are going from Zion make sure you drive up the impressive staircase and through the 1.5-mile tunnel, a real spectacle of a drive. Make sure you are not in a hurry though, it is steep, 100’s of bends and getting stuck behind a tourist coach is just a matter of time.
Now after seeing a lot of national parks including Arches, Monument Valley and Canyonlands we arrived at The Grand Canyon thinking that it can’t be that grand because the others
It is everything its title says it is…..simply breathtaking, and we had seen it before…
- 4 – 18 miles wide and 1 mile deep it cannot be described, go there, make it
your bucket list item.
We decided that our last night of camping booked for here was not going to take place, purely because this was going to get us back home late on a Thursday and we were booked to fly to L.A. on Saturday. We wanted a bit more downtime so decided to look at the majestic site and drive the 7 hours home.
As for the camera, well three days after reporting it missing, we received a call from a lovely lady that had found it and turned it into the Lodge at Zion. We immediately called and gave them our credit card details and it landed back home courtesy of
Check out the wonderful image gallery
Next stop Universal Studios.