We have moved to Cedar City, Utah for a few days so we can visit a few parks. First on our list is Zion National Park.
It was a little bit of a drive to the park from where we were staying, lots curves and going up hill and down hill. Zion is apparently a very popular park and there are lots of business right outside the entrance catering to park visitors. For most of the year part of the park is closed off to personal cars and you have to use the park shuttle to access that area. It is a free shuttle and you can get on and off the shuttle at any stop. We had considered taking it but the weather changed and it became windy and wet. We decide we did not want to be hopping on and off to look at sights in the rain so stuck to the other side of the park. We made several stops at the various view points as the weather got a little wetter and more windy.
At one point the wind was so bad it was blowing sand across the road.
Bruce was across the road and was able to get a good video of the sand blowing.
There are a couple of tunnels in the park. The first one is a little over one mile long and it is not a straight drive to the other side. If you have an oversized vehicle you can go through the tunnel but you have to pay a fee as they have to stop the traffic from the other direction so you can drive through the center of the tunnel. We were in the truck so we were fine.
The tunnel had no lighting other than what they get from the natural light outside and they get that in the tunnel by cutting big windows in a few different points. We had noticed a large opening as we were approaching the entrance of the tunnel and could tell it was not natural.
We passed several window during the drive.
After going through the tunnels you are almost on the east side of the park and view are very different.
One of the view was of a mountain called checkerboard because of all the marking on it.
We left the park to go to Bryce Canyon and then returned later on our way back to the RV. The signs all said to watch for Big Horned Sheep on the left side of the park and on the return trip we actually spotted one strolling down the road.
According to the website, approximately 20 bighorn sheep in the Zion herd are fitted with collars. The collars have radio and GPS transmitters that allow researchers to remotely track their movements.
We apparently caught a picture of one of the sheep wearing a collar. The collars also appear to have bells attached as we could hear it ringing as the sheep walked across the road.
When we left the park to go to Bryce we passed a big herd of bison along the road.
No hiking on in this park as the hiking trails were primarily on the side where you rode the shuttle.