utah – Wanderer Photography

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Zion National Park, Utah

Posted on May 6, 2014 in Travel

Yes, I know – long time, no pictures.

Why? Life caught up with me. First, I bought a house. Yes, I am an owner – or almost, 29 years and a half to pay for mortgage, but still (pictures to come). Then, things happened, my girlfriend came to visit, we went to places, I moved from the apartment to the house etc.

Getting back to the story though 🙂

Last you heard we were in Hawaii and heading to another destination. This was on 4th of July – we flew Kona – San Francisco (again, 5 hour flight with nothing but water underneath) and then we boarded on a flight to the middle of the desert: Las Vegas. We got to Vegas around midnight and we finally made it to a bed on the strip around 2AM (“the strip” is the main street in Las Vegas where all the casinos and hotels are). At 2AM, the temperature outside was 85F (about 30 C). Unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time to spare since we had quite a travel planned for the next day.

What trip? About 300km (160 miles) NE of Las Vegas is Zion National Park with its Zion Canyon. The Zion Canyon is impressive due to its color (see above – pretty much everything is reddish) and its design (see more below). I have been in Zion some time earlier and liked it a lot – more pictures and details to come.

So, after about 3 hours of me driving and mom sitting in the front seat paying attention so I don’t fall asleep, we reached the Canyon. The national park is really nice, you drive into it and then you park your car and hop on a bus that goes around the accessible part of the park. Like this, everyone is happy – you don’t have to spend time searching for a parking spot near the hike you want to take, no traffic on those narrow roads.

One of the things I liked most about Zion National Park is the perspective it gives you on the Canyon. Unlike the Grand Canyon (we’ll get there, no worries) where you are at the top of the cliff and look down upon … pretty much nothing, in Zion Canyon, you are the nothing and you have very tall (red) walls creeping up on you both to your left and to your right. Here, you can see my parents (a bit distorted by my 11-16 lens) and one of these walls.

While at the entrance in the Canyon, the valley is open and buses can easily fit sideways, as you get deeper into the canyon, the walls come closer and closer together. In the top right corner in the picture above you can see a peak – it’s called Angel’s Landing. It is a 4 hour hike in which the last portion of the hike (about 1h each way) you have to use chains and pull yourself to get to the top – pretty fun. Since I was with my parents, I did not attempt it this time, but the last time I was here, I went all the way to the top (pictures to come).

Instead, we took an easier trip that involves walking around through a forest filled with hungry squirrels.

Example 1. What are you looking at?

As you go deeper into the Canyon, you get to the entrance in what is called “The Narrows”. This is a long hike (couple of hours at least) that takes you deep into the canyon (and deep into the water) and through parts of the canyon that, you guessed it, are very narrow.

We did not do the narrows hike, but we jumped the pond and took a couple of pictures. Here, bringing some culture from Hawaii – the Shaka sign.

Nearing sunset time, the colors were very nice on those walls.

And these other walls.

Although the weather was not the best – it was cloudy most of the time, I can’t complain. A day at 100F (35C) would not have been great at all. The sun came out near sunset and I was able to snap some cool pictures. Inside the canyon, we took a short hike – called the Emerald Pools. The hike is really easy, but it’s worth it for the view towards the exit of the canyon: