Day 23 - Monday, Oct 16 - St. George, UT, Zion NP, to Kanab, UT

October 16, 2017

Starting mileage: 5707 Starting time: 8:30 am
Ending mileage: 5831 Ending time: 6:00 pm
Travel mileage: 124 Travel time: 9:30 hours

From the hotel we headed up to the Kolob Canyons in the northern part of Zion. We were surprised to see the speed limit of 80mph which almost seemed too much for our aging Subaru Forester.

When we arrived at the Kolob Canyons visitor center, the temperature was only 33 degrees although we found out later that we should have been thankful as it was only 14 degrees at Bryce Canyon this morning - Bryce isn't that far away although considerably higher.

The Kolob Canyon area is not nearly as popular as the Zion Canyon and we had a quiet drive up to a viewpoint, seeing amazing red cliffs and gorges in the early morning sunlight.

From there we headed down to the south entrance which is supposed to be a 45 minute drive but due to the construction near the entrance, it took us an additional 45 minutes to go the last mile. We were fortunate that we weren't going out the same way as the traffic was backed up over 3 miles. We got on the shuttle to take us back to where we parked outside the park but the driver told us it would probably take less time to walk the half mile than to take the shuttle - we got off the shuttle and walked. As it turned out, we and the shuttle got there at the same time. Parking inside the park tends to be completely full if you don't get there by 9am so most people have to pay $15-$20 to park in the adjacent town and take a shuttle to the park. Fortunately, the shuttle system works well when there isn't construction.

Due to the number of visitors, most of the year private cars aren't allowed to drive into the canyon. The shuttle system worked very well for us with waits of no more than 10 minutes or so although I can imagine that during busy times a shuttle might arrive and have no room to take on passengers.

Our first stop was the museum just inside the entrance which has a nice introductory video and exhibits on the history, culture and geology of the park. There have been a number of indigenous peoples living in the park going back 8,000 years. Unfortunately, when the Euro-Americans discovered the park and moved in, that was pretty much the end of the indigenous people there.

Many of the waterfalls are ephemeral and are dependent on rain storms in order to see them. One interesting place we visited was the Weeping Rock where water that has percolated down through a thousand feet or more of sandstone hits an impermeable layer and "weeps" out of the edge of the cliff. This is constant, independent of the rain. The water enables "hanging gardens", plants growing out of the side of the cliff that have a constant water supply. At this location, the rock is concave where the water comes down and one can go behind it like going behind a waterfall. See the photo of Carmen below.

We eventually went to the end at the Temple of Sinawava. Beyond this point, the valley narrows too much to drive in. There is a beautiful walk in along the North Fork of the Virgin River. This turns into the Narrows trail where one has to walk up the stream bed between towering sheer walls that are very close together. We didn't do this as it is a ways in, the water is very cold and it helps to have appropriate foot gear.

Leaving the park, we drove out to the east entrance. Although it is not a sheer canyon, the cliffs and mountains are still spectacular. The road goes through a mile-long tunnel that was constructed in 1930 and was quite an engineering feat. It wasn't designed for today's large vehicles so the traffic alternates going through the middle.

We are spending the night at a Comfort Suites in Kanab, UT and plan to visit the north rim of the Grand Canyon tomorrow.