The Utah Redemption Tour: Our Conclusion About Zion
We've already shared our first impressions of Zion National Park, and they weren't the best. Upon our arrival, we were bombarded with inconsiderate neighbors at our campground, which put us down on the count for a great experience. However, we needed to focus on what we could enjoy at this park, and something that always puts us in better spirits is hiking. This hike, however, was unlike any other. We took to the Virgin River to hike the Zion Narrows, and afterwards finally felt like we were getting into a flow. Only, would it last?
We'd need to wait a bit to see, because our brief rainstorm in the Narrows made way for some iffy weather over the next couple of days. We battled high winds, thunder, and even hail!
Our next true national park adventure wouldn't be until Saturday, April 19, a day we thought we would stay deep inside our trailer and watch the mayhem unfold from a distance. Why? It was the kickoff to National Park Week, and visitors could get in for free!
Playing like tourists cattle
After a few days of avoiding storms, we were itching to get on more of the trails at Zion, but we worried that this beautiful Saturday with free park admission would bring the crowds in droves. We figured if we set our expectations right, perhaps we could have some enjoyable experiences anyway. In fact, we could make a little game of it! What if we only had today to experience Zion, like normal tourists who pop in just for free admission day? Thankfully, if it was total chaos, we still had a few more days in the park, so we wouldn't be losing out too much. We could just dive right into the experience and see how things went.
We started with a morning walk on the Pa'rus trail. This 3.5mi paved trail is multi-use for bikes and pedestrians. It is the only pet-friendly trail in the park, so we thought we could do part of it with Tanner. Unfortunately, Tanner suffers from multiple personalities, and we never know which we'll get.
Sometimes, we'll get this guy:
Even more rarely, we'll get him:
But on this day, this is what we got:
After literally dragging for .05 miles, we took him back inside and decide to venture out on our own. We had no intentions of walking the full 3.5 miles, especially since we'd tack on an extra half-mile each way walking from our campsite, but we figured we'd go as far as we wanted and decide when to turn around.
The beginning of the trail wasn't exactly picturesque...
The South Campground was under construction, as was part of the Pa'rus Trail. The good news, though, was that the trail wasn't at all crowded. Most visitors were off to greater excursions further into the park. The visitor center parking lot was already full, so we can safely assume that most people hopped the shuttles. We shared the trail with just a handful of walkers and cyclists.
Along the trail are various places to stop for a rest, as well as signs pointing out some of the landscape and history of the area. One of the stops even has amazingly clear dinosaur footprints! Notice how one was still filled with water from the previous storms.
The walk was easy and pleasant, weaving us across the river via a series of footbridges. We decided to walk all the way to the end of the trail, though that was actually our Plan B. Plan A was to get off the trail shortly after South Campground and cut over to the Human History Museum, but we missed the sign for the turnoff because it was extremely small. Once we realized we had passed the turnoff, we decided to just continue walking.
Once at the end, the timing was perfect to grab the down-canyon shuttle. We made the split decision to hop on for just one stop, going from stop 3 to 2, and getting to the museum that way. Once there, perhaps we could find the cut-through back to the Pa'rus Trail.
The shuttle still had plenty of empty seats. Not many people were heading back toward the visitor center yet.
The Human History Museum had exhibits on the many humans and animals that have made Zion their home over the years. Zion was an oasis for many, offering ample water and plant/animal life that cannot be easily found in other parts of southern Utah.
After our little break from the trail, we found access to the cut-through to make our way back to Pa'rus. Then, we headed down-canyon, back towards the visitor center and Watchman.
In total, we walked 3.6 miles. During our walk, we wondered about visitation on this free day. The park was definitely crowded, but no more than other days. We thought about the sage advice, which is to avoid national parks on free days, unless you purposely want to cash in on your free admission. In other words, if you have a parks pass or are cool paying some money, then free days are not when you want to go. But does this then become the "backwards visitation" phenomenon? Enough people avoid free admission days because they get too crowded, that eventually they stop being so crowded.
After a successful morning excursion, we decided to tack on an afternoon excursion, and this one would surely be a doozy. What would happen if we took the shuttle to one of the most popular trails in the park? We had no intention to do Emerald Pools, but given that we had already clocked over 3.5 miles that day, we needed something that would fit our preference for distance and difficulty. There are 3 emerald pools in total, areas where run-off flows off the cliffs and collects into pools below. Visitors can choose to see 1, 2, or all 3 pools. Normally, the trail can be accessed via a bridge over the Virgin River, but that bridge has been out of commission for the past couple of years. Instead, people need to go one stop further on the shuttle and hike the Kayenta Trail to the pools. Remember when we talked about the pressure to plan and execute each activity at Zion? This is precisely what we mean. You should have seen us before we left, pouring over all the maps and guides, trying to figure out which trails needed to be accessed where. However, knowing that so much confusion surrounds this hike, and the Kayenta Trail adds on extra distance, would this deter some people? Only one way to find out.
We walked over to the shuttle stop by the visitor center and only needed to wait one round of buses before we could fit on. Even walking through the visitor center plaza, the crowds were normal.
The shuttle rides are a great opportunity to eavesdrop and see what everyone else has been up to. We love listening to people's reactions to the various trails they've done and what they think about Zion. Once in a while, we'll chime in with our own reactions and tips. This ride was enlightening, as we discovered what kind of people go to Zion on free admission day. We saw some locals who have visited Zion a few times, and yet have never been to Bryce Canyon. Big mistake. We also saw a family from Maryland who was taking a whirlwind trip, not unlike our pre-RV life road trips. This was their only day in Zion before heading up to Bryce. All of these people had decided to hike Emerald Pools as well, except they didn't know the bridge was out until the shuttle driver announced it. Imagine the panic when everyone suddenly realized they needed to get off a different shuttle stop and hike a totally different trail! They all took out their maps, scrambling to find their starting point and calculate distance. We might feel the pressure of the park during our planning process, but we'd take that any day over feeling it at the last minute on the shuttle!
The Kayenta Trail starts at the same trailhead as West Rim, the more strenuous trail that takes hikers to Scouts Lookout, and if you have a permit, to Angels Landing. We happily waved to that trail as we branched left to take the much easier of the two. Once on the trail, the crowds weren't terrible. The trail follows a narrow ledge, which meant whenever we did pass someone, we needed to stop and get over to make room. This makes the traverse more difficult because we can't get into a rhythm, but we just focused on the views. We were actually happy that we needed to take this trail. The higher elevation gave a nice vantage point of all the rocks and cliffs, with the river flowing below. The landscape in Zion is so vast, it's impossible to capture its grandiosity in the frame of a photo, but the dramatic colors and textures give an essence of what we saw.
A little less than a mile in, we hit the junction that would take us to Lower Emerald Pool. It was very crowded, so we decided to continue to the Middle and Upper Pools first and hit Lower on the way back. Middle Emerald Pool wasn't anything spectacular. A small stream of water ending in a puddle and then continuing over the edge down to the Lower Pool. The part near the edge was blocked off, but the rest we could step right into and over. As always with featured attractions that you can climb into, everyone took their sweet time splashing in the puddle-pool. We didn't stay long.
Left: The line of people going down to Lower Pool. Middle and right: The stream and small Middle Pool.
Zion is one of the few national parks where we agreed with almost every trail's difficulty rating. The Emerald Pools were rated as moderate, and we can see why. The stretch to Upper Pool was no joke. Tons of steep boulder steps and a good climb, plus the sand made the steps quite slippery. But, we were rewarded with a much larger pool surrounded by tall, sheer cliff faces.
Just a little taste of the terrain on the Upper Emerald Pools Trail
We needed to imagine what this place would be like if there were no people. The peaceful sounds of the splashing water and the calm reflections in the pool must be incredibly serene. We, however, needed to make sure we could hop the stepping stones without getting pushed into the water. Not exactly the Zen experience we would prefer.
Next, we retraced our steps back to the Lower Pool spur. Only, before we got there, we took a wrong turn. Instead of following the trail back to Lower Pool, we turned onto the trail that would eventually lead us to the broken bridge – the trail people would normally take if the bridge was intact. We immediately knew we went the wrong way, but up ahead we saw a flat area with a pool and overlook, so we decided to check it out. We're glad we did. Hardly any people were over there, and this pool was even better than Middle Pool!
We made the right choice saving Lower Pool for last. Not only had most of the crowds dissipated, but we think this was the best pool. The waterfalls streamed over the cliffs, and we could walk behind them. People have the choice to venture down behind the waterfalls or head to a viewpoint across the pool. We did both, but going behind the falls was definitely optimal.
As much as we appreciated the beauty of our hike, we were feeling the frustration building. Every time we saw someone disobey the rules or ignorantly push into someone or get in their way, we thought about how Zion deserves more. At the Lower Emerald Pool viewpoint, we saw that someone had carved into the stone bench. Typically we see names and initials, which always makes us wonder how narcissistic people can be, but this time, it was two games of tic tac toe. To think that someone thought it was appropriate to deface national park property for a 60-second game is baffling on many levels. First of all, you made the choice to create a permanent grid of Xs and Os that you won't ever care about after that 60 seconds. Second of all, you're at a natural pool surrounded by cliffs and waterfalls, and you decide that you're bored enough to play tic tac toe. For absolute shame.
Then on the way back to the trailhead, we encountered a group of hikers who thought it was appropriate to bring along a JBL speaker and play music along the way. Further down the trail, I spotted a prickly pear cactus with initials carved straight through it, creating massive holes in two of its nopales. Around the carvings was evidence of disease.
It's hard to enjoy the late afternoon glow of the sun on the cliffs when we're trying so hard to ignore problem of human infestation right before our eyes, and even more so, try not to be part of that problem.
Another 3 miles down for the day, and we were tired and quickly losing morale. However, we decided to make one last stop along the shuttle route to the Court of the Patriarchs Viewpoint, 3 sandstone cliffs standing at over 6800ft.
One final adventure
We knew we couldn't leave Zion without taking route 9 east through the Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel. We had thought about driving the whole highway and taking a hike on the east side of the park, but our adventure burnout was real. Instead, we decided to hike the Canyon Overlook Trail, an easy 1-mile hike with a good payoff. We left early Sunday morning to try and beat the crowds. The highway took us up a bunch of switchbacks until we reached the tunnel. We heard that the view exiting the tunnel was a must-see, but we must have misunderstood. Heading east, we exited to a crosswalk, staff outpost, and parking lot. Driving west was better, but it was views we had already seen. Beautiful views, of course, but brains adapt to even the most enthralling sights. They weren't a novelty anymore. We took this as a sign that our Utah Redemption Tour was coming to an end at the right time. We were becoming j-j-jaded and Zion was yesterday's child.
We did our best to soak in our surroundings on the Canyon Overlook Trail. Despite its easy rating, it began with a steep set of stairs and then proceeded along a slick rock ledge that sometimes had guardrails. Even though the official overlook was at the end of the trail, we found several places with fantastic views. One in particular was in an alcove of one of the cliffs, where we felt like we were nestled in a cave looking out at the rocks.
The official overlook faced away from the morning sun, so the shadows got in the way. A worthy price to pay for sharing the overlook with only a few other hikers.
Left: The picture we were trying to take when my tripod fell over and almost went off a cliff. Right: The picture that snapped after the tripod stopped tumbling, thankfully only a couple feet down the cliff where it could easily be retrieved.
After our hike, we made the command decision to not continue our scenic drive on the highway. We knew that doing anything else at Zion would be because we felt we had to, not because we wanted to. We wanted to end our adventures before we got totally burnt out.
So, what did we really think about Zion National Park? On our walk along the Pa'rus Trail, which we can pinpoint as our last moment of true, unadulterated enjoyment of the park, we came to our conclusion: Zion National Park has become a victim of its own popularity. Fundamentally, the park is spectacularly gorgeous. There's no denying that. However, being our 33rd national park, do we think that its beauty warrants the hoards of visitors? Not really, and especially not after we witnessed more disrespectful behavior here than at most other parks. It's clear that word has gotten out that Zion is one of the best and cannot be missed, and so people flock to it. Then, there is so much pressure to enjoy the park that people convince themselves that it's just as wonderful as everyone says. Even if their opinion differs from the masses, there's added pressure to agree that it's a must-see, so the word keeps spreading. So then, if a family has the opportunity to see one of the Mighty 5, they choose Zion. This is compounded by the fact that, of the Mighty 5, Zion is the most accessible. It's close to I-15 and serves as a convenient weekend trip for Utahns, Arizonans, Nevadans, and Californians. It's the park that lies closest to an actual city, St. George. The infrastructure of Zion can't hold up to the number of visitors. The NPS does the best it can by closing roads, limiting parking, and implementing the shuttles, but what this does to help lower traffic and wear-and-tear increases chaos and confusion.
Watchman also failed as a retreat from the hustle and bustle of the park. We had some good times meeting friendly neighbs, enjoying impromptu doggy play dates, and marveling at the scenery in peace. However, Watchman has become a destination for groups that want to "live it up" on a national park vacation. We have never camped at a national park with so many people congregating in large groups around loud speakers. 4 of the 8 nights, people were partying well past the start of quiet hours. If we're going to inundate a preserved wild space with our humanness, the least we can do is try to be respectful. Unfortunately, a lot of visitors to Zion haven't grasped the big picture of the implications of their actions.
We don't say this to sound preachy and we certainly don't say it to deter you from visiting the park yourself. We say it in hopes that we can find a balance of enjoying our public spaces for years to come, while also letting them thrive. National Park Week began as a celebration of Earth Week, to encourage people to get outside and appreciate the offerings of unspoiled land. Our last day at Zion fell on Earth Day, but ironically, Zion has become an illustration of what could happen when people lose this appreciation. We would be devastated if this park became decimated as a result.