Zion

After visiting Temple Square, going south gave us a feeling of being a little bit like pioneers sent to uknown land by Mr. Young (especially that we were covered with dust and tired after all the traveling). But when Saints tell you to go, you don't argue so we headed to all those famous national parks of southern Utah. Route from SLC south can be done in a day, it's less than 300 miles to Zion, but we didn't want to overtire Jeep and ourselves (Maciek is not that excited about spending long hours in a car any more as he was in the beginning of our journey and he gets moody quickly), so we divided the route into smaller parts. 

Practical tip. In Utah we stayed mostly at free campsites and to find them we used two sources. One was  freecampsites.net, very useful website, we even started posting our own opinions there, the other is a guide book "RV Boondocking In Southern Utah. A Frugal Shunpiker’s Guide" written by Marianne Edwards, the person behind Boondockers Welcome. Books in .pdf can be bought from Marianne's website. The one we have about Utah is great. In other states we could survive without her tips but in Utah we will use them a lot. Utah was a final and best chapter of our dry camping in USA. 

On our way south we stayed overnight in Burrastow Ponds near Mona. It's just 100 mil from SLC, but we couldn't find anything more convenient between there and our destination. Unfortunately Marianne writes only about the southern part of the state. In central and northern Utah we were on our own.

Free camping at Burrastow Ponds

Despite good directions at  freecampsites.net it was not easy to find road to the ponds. If you ever decide to go there, look for it just after the last house in Mona, to your right. Campground was ok, almost like Masurian lakes (with a tiny difference called Mt. Nebo, almost 12,000 feet high). But the rest was very Masurian: some loud guests that have been there for a while, mosquitos, water...

It was a nice place for one night. It was also the first place that we saw what free camping in Utah looks like. There was a tent with clothes drying outside, shoes, canoe, some gadgets, and the owner did not come in those over 12 hours we've been there. It helped us a little bit to get used to the thought of leaving Eddie in these kind of places instead of towing it everywhere behind us.

On the second day we decided to leave interstate and drive through historic Mormon towns. They were dissapointing except for Manti. In Manti there is a beatiful Mormon temple. Built in 1888 made of white stone on a hill is visible from afar and looks very inviting. Even more when you get close. You can't go in but when we were there parking was full of cars and there were lots of Mormons around.

Overwhelmingly nice, open and talking with a very sweet voice. Experiencing this is just as shocking as the first day in States in general. People are too nice at first and is really hard to get used to it. And there everyone in white suit or modest skirt we would pass by would ask where we are from, why are we here, do we like it, and so on, and so on. Good that the temple is closed to normal people, otherwise it would be more difficult to get out of there than from Pahrump, NV. We would be closed by niceness and friendliness in a golden cage or in this case in a white stone cage.

Mormon temple in Manti, UT

But we were able to move on. Our base camp for the first national park we wanted to see, which was Zion, we found in Marianne's guide book. Camping-wise Zion area is very friendly. Many people camp on western side of the park in  Springdale where they just stop on a side of the street and take a free shuttle to Zion.

We decided to stay on the other side, as we wanted to take part in a lottery for permit to Wave, which takes place in Kanab. We needed a place between Kanab and Zion. And Marianne had exactly such a place for us. Very picturesque with view to white Navajo sandstone cliffs (yes, we learned quickly all about different rocks and deposite layers), with some wood lying around and with a firering which we used twice. We stayed there for four nights, trailer was waiting for us for three full days and nothing happened to it. 

Campsite with white cliffs view

Meanwhile in Zion… It's the most famous national park in southern Utah. Maybe because most of tourists start their adventures in Las Vegas, which is just a bit more than 100 miles away. Road from SLC is also easy and quick. Going by the limit you can be there in 4 hours. But lets be fair. It's not only easy to get to, it's also very beautiful. It's also the oldest national park in Utah, founded in 1909. More than 2.5 million people visits it every year. So did we.

We saved 25 USD on the entrance, thanks, again, to our card America the Beautiful. There is of course a free shuttle bus but to get to Zion from the east there is a few miles drive through breathtaking mountains and over a mile long tunnel. It's one of the most beautiful roads we've seen here in States. It's worth a drive both for a view and a tunnel. It was opened in 1930 and back then it was the longest tunnel in the USA and a real engineering masterpiece. 

Unfortunately those old time engineers hadn't thought of how wide and how tall the rv would get some day, so the tunnel has its limits. Each vehicle wider than 7 feet 10 inches and/or taller than 11 feet 4 inches requires the tunnel to be closed to the traffic coming from opposite direction as it has to drive in the middle of the road. It costs 15 USD. Our Eddie would probably fit right in, but just in case we didn't try. Instead we waited for 15 minutes for some class C to get through. 

We got there late, just after 11 am. At that time it wasn't easy to find a parking space. Most of the park is open only for free buses so we had to park somewhere. We finally did (which was the second time that day we got lucky, we'll write about the first time in next post), and dragging Maciek behind (he had a fever a night before) we went for a walk. 

Zion was the beginning of the third part of our adventure with Colorado Plateau. First part was Grand Canyon, second Hoover Dam, third - national parks of Utah. Through millions of years in this place seas and ocenas were coming and retreatriting, deserts were created only to disappear under layers of other geological formations. Finally, some 180 millions years ago tectonic movements started to uplift the plateau and it ended up a few thousands feet higher than it started. 

Next it was time for the erosion elements to start their job. Water carved canyons, wind and sun did their job too. And now we can see the effect. With water carving canyons it's a little bit like with evolution. Seeing the final effect it's difficult to believe that it's done by water itself. But after all Utah is a state of faith, so we believed.

Zion was named by Mormon settlers in mid-19th century. It was their haven, safe and fertile land surrounded by a hostile desert. They started settling in the area growing mostly cotton. Soon the national park was established, and brought roads and thousands of tourists, so the area changed. But it doesn't mean they don't grow anything here any more. The amount of water used for watering fields of southern Utah is mindblowing. They water and water and water, which gets a bit annoying when we start running out of water in our trailer… 

Back to Zion… We hiked on only two out of many trails (see: Maciek and fever), we went to Emerald Pools, three tiny ponds, where the trail leads under waterfall, and which at the time was almost completely dry. It's one of the easiest and often recommended trails so it was really crowded. Then we went for a walk along the river. It's a nice and easy walk, perfect to end the day, and it's stroller accessible. There are lots of trees but it runs along the road (partly open for cars), so if you're not there with kids you can skip it. This trail, by the way, is a bikepath. Southern Utah is very bike friendly, maybe except for the tunnel on "9", which is closed for bikers…

Zion is really amazing, it reminded us a bit of Grand Canyon but unlike it's famous cousin it's seen from the bottom. There is less people, but it's still crowded. The part that we liked the most was the road from the entrance to visitors center. We considered going back to Zion for one more day but we had a next day planned already and we couldn't postpone it. After that we would have to go back on long weekend and parking would be really difficult, traffic would be just awful and crowds on the trail would drive us crazy. So we decided to go on less popular trails outside of Zion, which were almost just as picturesque, and some of them even more.

Zion is a park, which can be fully appreciated if you go there without kids, or with kids older than ours. Two most recommended trails are Angel’s Landing and Narrows. Everyone we talked to said we have to go there. Unfortunately, we couldn't. Narrows is flat, but almost 10 mile long trail with crossing deep water in narrow canyon carved by Virgin River. It holds an unofficial title of the best trail of national parks system in USA. Maybe next time.

Angel’s Landing is shorter, a little bit more than 5 miles but it has 1500 feet elevation change. The final part goes on a narrow ledge with chains that keep hikers safely on the mountainside. With two Kalinas we would manage but Maciek would get really tired and we'd have to carry him. And he is heavy...Anyway, they say the view from the top to the valley is amazing.

There are also other great trails that you need a permit for. They are all on our bucket list. Next time, when the kids are older or go away for a summer camp. But in the national parks you don't even have to go on the most difficult trails to be alone and enjoy peace, quiet and wilderness. Even during high season you can be sure that going onto moderate trails you don't have to deal with crowds.

To sum up: Zion gives you hiking choices wide open and everyone, experienced hikers and lazy ones with kids can find something suitable. We did and we'll be back one day for more!