After beautiful Valley of fire I couldn’t decide where I need to go – to Bryce Canyon or Zion Canyon. And I found compromise – half of day I’ll spend in Zion Canyon and after I’ll go to Bryce Canyon. How naive was I…
Zion Canyon is part of the Zion National park. It’s so huge. If you want to see all canyon you need to have minimum 2 or 3 days. I came to Zion park at the morning. Entrance price for one car is 35 dollars. I didn’t pay nothing due to my amazing friends from Czech Republic – local guides Stana (@StanaS) and Lukas (@LukasKutilek). They gave me their annual pass to National parks. And enter was free for me!
Autumn is amazing time for visiting Zion Canyon - it’s not hot but warm, trees are so colorful, sky is clear… A small advice for visiting in Autumn: check weather before! And of course you should remember about darkness - it’s really dark at 6 p.m. You can walk as much as you like but you won’t see nothing. And don’t forget about wild animals that live there - they walk every time but especially after sunset.
How you can understand I stayed in Zion national park for all day - I didn’t have time to go to Bryce Canyon. The most difficult thing is choosing hiking trail. There are more 20 trails with different levels of difficulty. I decided: if I have only one day I’ll choose the most strenuous trail. I wanted to try Angels Landing, one of the world’s most renowned hikes. But it was closed. This is why I chose Observation Point hike.
I ascended nearly 2,000 feet. Roundtrip is about 8 miles. I spent 2-3 hours in each directions.
Sometimes tracks were very narrow and I should wait skipping other people.
Echo Canyon is amazing place that you meet on your way.
The top of Observation Point hike is on Mount Baldy. It’s very large plateau where you can see all amazing Zion canyon.
I met a horn sheep but he was very fast and I couldn’t make picture. But I found many cliff chipmunks who were my models!
On the top I met two guys from Austria and Taiwan. They are also solo travelers. We descended together. We spoke a lot and laughed a lot. Because of this we almost missed the last shuttle to the parking.
A little bit of history about Zion National park: it’s very old. Nobody knows how many years this canyon has. Scientists found some formation that have 150 millions years. But in first time it was protected only in 1909 and was first declared a national monument. And in 1919 it became a national park. It was very nice place without any routes. Tourists couldn’t visit it. And for first time park was opened in 1930.
Some advices for travelers:
- Coming early morning for hiking;
- Taking a lot of water;
- Don’t forget about sunscreen;
- Hiking shoes is very necessary - stones are very slippery;
- Wear comfortable clothes and bring some warm clothes (hoodie etc) - it’s cold after sunset.
