After getting a bite to eat at the Red Iguana in SLC, we drove through the evening to get a hotel Cedar City by midnight. We needed to find a hotel that was just north of the entrance to Zion National Park for the morning.
That morning we reorganized the cubes and grease, filled up the tank, and wrapped up any last minute things, because after our national park visit, we would plan to finish the remainder of the drive to Vegas and ultimately Los Angeles before midnight.
Driving into Zion is kind of a pain. You have to take state roads to find the entrance, which is a lengthy detour. Eventually you make it to the gate, but since this place is heavily visited and it’s the middle of July, the tourism overload is in full effect.
Ultimately we finally got in and Zion didn’t disappoint.
The mountains are surreal. Warped and twisted layers of red rock everywhere. And the roadway was make with red aggregate, so it’s truly almost like a Martian environment.
We pulled over many times to stop and survey the landscape. At the end of the park, there is a massive visitor’s center with a gift shop, museum, and other restaurants. But since it was so packed, the parking was a nightmare. Just imagine parking a massive veggie van amongst thousands of other cars… It took some finagling.
Overall, I like Zion, but I will only return to the park in the off season. Onward to Vegas!
