Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

There are two national parks pretty close to Kanab and we wanted to make sure we saw both. Zion is much more popular than Bryce so we figured we would go to Bryce on the weekend and Zion through the week to try and beat some of the crowds. It didn’t work out for Zion.

Bryce Canyon is another park with only one entrance/exit which typically means it has quite a few lookouts along the route. It is also at a high elevation and so still had quite a bit of snow. Since we aren’t exactly prepared to go hiking while being cold (gross) we figured this would make for a good lazy day national park. With another time change everyone slept in – like until 11:00 – so our trip to Bryce worked out quite well.

We set off after lunch for the park, made sure to make our compulsory stop at the visitor centre where we mostly just say “no we aren’t buying that” and then headed off for the furthest point in the park to work our way back to the amphitheatre. Roland came for this trip with us as well and nearly killed us with the change in atmospheric pressure in his guts as we climbed to our highest point yet – over 9000ft! We stopped at a few more of the viewpoints before heading back to the amphitheatre where you can climb down into the canyon!

Roland unfortunately wasn’t able to join us on our walk into the canyon. Both because dogs aren’t allowed and because, it didn’t seem wise to try and navigate muddy ice with him. We hiked the Navajo loop with likely the most unsteady group of people we have ever encountered. Nearly everyone looked like they had either just learned to walk or were severely out of shape. I will admit that it wasn’t the easiest terrain – it was a bit slippery but as long as you took your time it was totally fine. We were rewarded for our efforts with some super cool views and a picnic supper at the end.

After a day at home we set off for Zion National Park – apparently the second most visited mark in the country – and it showed. We knew that it would be busy. What we weren’t expecting was almost no services, no parking and at least a 1.5 hour wait for the shuttle (the only way into the canyon). Needless to say we were not prepared to wait that long, especially not risking having the same wait, or worse, on the way back out. We settled for a beautiful drive, a walk and a hike for a canyon view.

Zion definitely looked pretty. I will say by now we are getting a little desensitized to the rocks. I’m also just not a huge fan of sharing nature with thousands of people – it really takes away from the magic of a place. So while Zion was pretty, it definitely won’t make the top of my list.