Zion National Park had 3.6 million visitors in 2020, which is about 1 million less visitors than in 2019, we knew that Zion would be busy but thankfully it wasn't as busy as in recent history.
The drive from Bryce Canyon to Zion is about 2 hours. We had an uneventful drive, cell services was good in some places and almost no service at the parks, which ended up being a problem. I had forgotten to print out our Zion Lodge reservations, which you needed to enter the road the leads to the lodge and all the good hikes. Eventually my phone did load the reservation and we were able to enter.
We checked in to our little cabin, 2 double beds and a bathroom no TV or Wifi, only the main lodge had Wifi. Our reservation was for 2 nights for a total of $481.14, this was the most expensive reservation. I actually planned our trip around these dates, when I booked I was already late to the game and these were the only 2 consecutive nights available, of course COVID changed that and we could have changed dates but everything was already planned. After unloading our stuff we headed into town to eat dinner and pick up our boots for our Narrows Hike the following day.
We had dinner at Bamboo Chinese Restaurant, the food was okay nothing special, then picked up our Narrow's gear from Zion Outfitters.
We returned to our little cabin (no TV or Wifi) to rest before our 2 a.m. wake up call. During the summer of 2020, Zion park wasn't running their shuttles, the park needs the shuttles because the parking lots at the trailheads are small, less than 200 spot at the Narrows trailhead. In order to hike the Narrows you had to drive, bike or walk to the trailhead (about 6 miles from Zion Lodge). If you wanted to drive to the trailhead you needed to be one of the first 200 cars in line, the line started at Zion Lodge and they let vehicles start lining up at 2 a.m., Jackie and I woke up at 2 a.m. to move our car to the line. At about 6 a.m. we were headed to the Narrow's parking lot.
The reason we decided to rent boots was because we didn't want to get our boots wet, I would highly recommend you rent boots, unless you have your own water boots, water shoes will work but there are lots of rocks.
We hiked from about 7:30 a.m. (after we arrived in our parking spot we had some breakfast) until about 12:00 p.m. We could have stayed there all day if we weren't hungry. Our total mileage was about 10 miles. It was cold when we started, less than 40 degrees but warmed up to about 75 when we finished it was an unusually cold day for summer.
It wasn't crowded when we started, but when we finished it was very crowded, there were private companies offering shuttle services. I can't imagine what the trail looks like during on a normal year. This was our favorite hike of the entire trip.
We headed straight into town to eat lunch, after the super early morning we needed a big warm lunc. We had lunch at MeMe's Cafe, it was just what we needed after our 10 miles.
Back at our little cabin we showered and napped. After our nap Dave and I decided to hike the
Angel's Landing Trail. The girls stayed back, I'm glad we didn't take them because it was a tough out and back hike. It is a 4.4 miles out and back hike and 1,604 feet of elevation gain. The Chain Section of Angel's Landing was closed, due to COVID, but that is only .3 miles of hike.
This is the easy part of the trail.
The views from the start of the Chain Section are spectacular.
Proof that we made it to the start of the Chain Section.
The picture above is the start of the Chain Section, it doesn't look scary at first, but I imagine it's scary. Starting April 2022, you'll need a permit to hike the Chain Section part of the trail. It has become so popular that it is always crowded, people have actually fallen and died from this part of the trail. You can
apply for a permit.
Picture from Zion NP webpage:
We were exhausted after our two big hikes, we headed back to the lodge to get some food and pack up because we were headed to Moab the following morning, but not before one final hike.
Zion Canyon Overlook Trail, it is a super easy hike that ends with this awesome view:
The only problem is that parking is even more limited. The trailhead is right off Highway 9 on the east side of the Mount Carmel Tunnel, there is one parking lot with less than 10 parking spaces. There are additional pull-outs on Highway 9, but there aren't any sidewalks and you'll be walking on the shoulder. We had to park at a pull-out and walk on the shoulder.
If you can find a parking spot it is totally worth it, the hike is easy 1 mile round trip, with small elevation change.
It was a super short stay at Zion, but it was the perfect amount of time only because a lot of the good, short hikes were closed. In normal times I think 3 nights would have been the perfect amount of time.
Wrap up:
Lodging -
Zion Lodge $482, a little on the pricey side but inside the park
Hikes: Narrow's, Angel's Landing & Zion Canyon Overlook Trail
Restaurants: Bamboo Chinese Restaurant & MeMe's Cafe
