Driving to Zion from Bryce takes about an hour, and it’s a beautiful drive. It’s like you can see the movement patterns in the rocks, as they draw you in, around every bend. After a full day in Bryce Canyon National Park we were ready to hit the egg-crate foam mattress. We found a campground right outside the east entrance of Zion National Park, and they had two spots left for the night. We snagged one, set up camp, ate cup-o-noodles, pita, hummus, walked a little trail to say good night to the sun, and played some ping pong with some fellow campers in the giant laundry room.

We weren’t in a rush the next morning since the park was literally down the road.

Entering the park we passed through a series of tunnels and soaked in our environment via 25 mph. It was majestic. The painted layers in the giant rock formations are like no other. It was our first time to Zion and we figured it would be a similar experience to Bryce Canyon the previous day. It was not. Zion is definitely more popular and we didn’t realize the parking situation, where you take shuttles through the park. It wasn’t something we could tackle on our own pace. It felt a bit like Disneyland and we weren’t prepared to be surrounded by droves of people.

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We made it to the first stop on the tram, and did the hike to the Emerald Pools. It was breathtaking. When we returned back to the shuttle, we realized that to really do Zion right, it would take more time and energy than we had, so we called it a day. We still managed to stick around until about 5pm, then headed a few hours away to sleep in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This was the last stop on a 14-day roadtrip, and we were pooped. We said we would have to return to experience this beautiful national park, and next time, we start here.