I was awake EARLY. This worked out well because it gave me some time to finalize the plans for the day. Eventually I woke up Nick and we got ready and drove just up the street for breakfast.
We got to Oscar’s Cafe a few minutes before they opened, so we were the 3rd or 4th couple in line. It was cold this morning, so we asked to be seated inside. When we were seated we realized with the patio heaters going it might have actually been warmer on the patio. Oh well!
Breakfast at Oscar’s was great, and there was no question why this place, despite being so small, is mentioned so much. It’s little and adorable. The service was both friendly and very efficient. Prices were fair. The menu had a decent variety for such a small place and the food was excellent! Nick had some sort of french toast and I had a yogurt parfait that involved yogurt, their house made granola, and fruit. It was excellent. I’d eat here again without question!
After breakfast we drove back to the hotel and really got ready for the day. This was a bit of a process. For the majority of the year, visitors are required to use the shuttle within Zion, so we had to have everything we needed for the day in my backpack, which isn’t QUITE big enough for this. But we made it work. I had picked up some thermal pouches on amazon prior to the trip, and was able to stuff both sandwiches, plus some ice into just one pouch, which then got thrown into the backpack along with my camera. Nick rigged up the straps on my backpack to secure our 1-liter bottles of water. And we were good to go.
While not required, it is strongly recommended that visitors take the Springdale town shuttle bus to the park entrance, because parking at the visitors center generally fills up by between 8 and 9 am. Our hotel had a shuttle stop out in front of it, so taking the town shuttle and leaving our car parked was our plan. The town shuttle is free, so it really was a no-brainer. My understanding is buses on the town route come along every 10ish minutes.
When we were ready, we headed for the shuttle stop. A bus came along just a few minutes later and we were on our way to Zion! We made a few stops and the bus quickly reached standing room only. So while the Hampton isn’t the closest to the entrance (it’s about a mile away), it’s even more convenient because it’s an earlier bus stop!
The shuttle drops off and picks up in the same parking lot as Zion Brewery where we had eaten the night before. From there, it was a very short walk over a little pedestrian bridge, and we were in Zion!
I showed my America the Beautiful national parks entrance pass and we were on our way! Next stop? The park shuttle. There’s an incredible amount of queue rope set up at the visitors center, but we really didn’t have to wait long at all before we were boarding a shuttle. These seemed to be rolling in nearly constantly. We were ready for our day in the park!
We didn’t get very far into the park before the bus had to stop for a solid 10+ minutes. Road crews were cleaning a rock slide off the road.
Once the bus was moving again, we were treated to some beautiful views as we headed into the canyon.
We got off the bus at the first stop, the Court of Patriarchs. This stop had a short trail with a great view. And evidence of the lack of common sense these days…
After picture taking here, we hopped on the bus that came along just a couple minutes after we made it back to the bus stop and headed up to the next stop, which is where Zion Lodge is. Here we headed out on our main hike of the trip. We made the trek to the Lower Emerald Pool, and from there worked our way onto the Kayenta Trail. The Kayenta Trail took us basically along the side of a mountain (after we had climbed about 250 stairs from Lower Emerald Pool up to the next set of trails), with absolutely stunning viewpoints, and eventually brought us to the next stop up on the bus line, The Grotto. The stair climbing sucked, but beyond that, this was a very doable hike for both of us and worth every out of breath moment. Just make sure you have a camera or binoculars so you have an excuse to frequently stop to catch your breath when working your way up the mountain! I had seen the recommendation to go Lower Emerald Pool to Kayenta, rather than Kayenta to Lower Emerald Pool so that the stairs are at the start of your hike. We both were glad we went the direction we did, with the stairs at the start of the hike. They’re pretty narrow stairs and going down them on jelly legs wouldn’t have been fun. Get the stairs over with early.
Once we made it to the Grotto, we hopped on a bus and headed on to the next stop, the Temple of Sinewava. Here we found a spot for a picnic with a view.
After eating, we refilled our water bottles at the bottle fill stations, which supposedly use water right from the park (and was by far the best water we had while we were out west), and then we headed for the Riverside Walk, which is a paved path for most of the way, along the Virgin River. It takes you to the entrance to the Narrows, which is a hike through the river. We did not hike the Narrows. We DID enjoy the Riverside Walk.
Once we returned back to the Temple of Sinewava bus stop, we hopped on a bus and stayed on until the visitor center. We could have stopped at a couple other stops, but we both needed a nap, and I think we both felt we’d gotten a pretty good feel for Zion. And I think we both knew we will be back eventually! What a place! The ride back to the visitor center took a solid 40 minutes, both because it’s actually a pretty good distance and because they were still clearing that rock slide. Once back I did some souvenir shopping, and then we went and waited for the town bus back to the hotel.
We had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes but 2 or 3 buses arrived at once, so pretty soon we were on a bus and on our way back. It didn’t take very long to get back to the hotel, which is pretty attractive as Hampton Inns go.
Back at the room we both ditched the socks and Merrills. Nick napped and I got serious about fine tuning the plans for the next day. After Nick’s nap, we figured out dinner and walked across the parking lot to Jack’s, which is a sports bar. Dinner here was very good. I think Nick had a bison burger and I had a sandwich that involved turkey, cheese, avocado and bacon. There may have been a margarita involved too. No pictures from that particular meal, but service was good, food was good, overall, a good choice, and in a town with very limited parking, a place we could walk to was a really excellent choice!
After dinner, I headed up to the room and got the car keys. Nick had found a bakery connected to the Bumbleberry Inn that advertised bumbleberry handpies and we both were intrigued by bumbleberry. So we headed there. They were sold out of pies, but they had bumbleberry cheesecake fudge, so we decided that sounded like a great way to try a new to us berry. We got a square of cookies and cream fudge to round it out, and then headed back to the hotel.
The fudge was excellent. We enjoyed some of the fudge that evening and mapped out what the next day would look like. We had a very laid back evening and we both were asleep pretty early that night. We aren’t used to all this fresh air!
No comments:
Post a Comment