Day 7: Shorter Zion Hikes

After our big adventure yesterday, we decided we needed a more chill day. This meant waking up closer to our normal 7 a.m. time, some fried eggs, then getting ready to head out for the morning, so we ended up leaving the RV at 9 a.m. Parking at the visitor center was full, but that didn’t matter because we were going just outside the park today. We got to drive through the Zion-Mount Carmel Tunnel, which we’ll be driving through in our RV on the way to our next stop.

The wait to get there due to traffic/construction was crazy, but it turned out to be worth it. We even scored a parking spot in the tiny lot close by both trail heads.

Our first hike was the Canyon Overlook trail, which had the best “bang for the buck” of anything we’ve done so far: amazing views after just a half-mile hike. A man on the trail hobbled past us at one point, saying he torn his tendon from jumping on the rocks. Turns out more people get injured on this hike than Angels Landing. It was a good opportunity to give the kids a quick statistics lesson.

There was a super cool cave, literally, on the trail. It had ferns growing on the walls and water dripping. It also produced echos throughout the whole canyon area.

The chipmunks are well-accustomed to humans here, so we had to keep our backpack closed to avoid picking up a few uninvited guests.

Next, we headed to the Clear Creek/Hobbit Hole trail, based on a suggestion from the people behind us in the shuttle line yesterday. It was our first slot canyon and pretty cool, but as a second hike and just after noon, we were all pretty quickly ready to call it a day and get home for lunch.

We spent some time at the pool in the afternoon, then enjoyed a Mexican dinner at Casa de Amigos, based on Nicole’s recommendation, and picked up our gear for our river hike tomorrow. Fingers crossed as there’s a chance of rain tomorrow, but we are hoping with an early start we can pull it off.