Zion national park is located in southwestern Utah near the town of Springdale. It’s most famous for its reddish and tanned 24 km slot canyon which was carved by the Virgin River. (= Long, narrow channel, typically eroded into the rock by  a river)

Zion, like many of the other famous national parks, has become increasingly popular in the course of the last forty, fifty years. In the 90s the park saw so many visitors that traffic jams and congestions were no exception but happened on a daily basis. Therefore, a shuttle bus service was introduced in order to improve the experience for visitors and protect the environment. (The National Park Service began operating shuttles in 2000 to reduce traffic and parking problems, protect vegetation, and restore tranquility to Zion Canyon. In 2017, park shuttles transported more than 6.3 million riders 😯)

Our first hike took us to the ‘Emerald Pools’ consisting of the Upper Pool, the Middle Pool and the Lower Pool. The easy trail features waterfalls and the above mentioned pools. The views of the steep cliffs were breathtaking!

Because the Emerald Pools hike was easier than expected we also did the ‘Scout Lookout’ shortly after the first hike. The views were magnificent!!

The following day we got up really early to take the first shuttle at 7 am to go to the trailhead of one of the most famous hikes in the canyon: ‘The Narrows’. ‘The Narrows’ is the narrowest section of Zion Canyon and you basically hike upstream through the Virgin River to the lower end of the Zion Narrows .

You can rent some kind of hiking boots that are suitable for hiking in water and they come with a stick and neoprene socks as well.

Because of the early hour we were alone in the canyon for quite some time on our way to the narrowest section. 😍

Water level fluctuates greatly from day to day depending on many factors such as rainfall and snowmelt. Walking upstream is moderately difficult, with knee deep crossings on the slippery river bottom and frequent pools up to waist deep. Just that bit of a challenge that we need 😁

Words can’t describe how cool this hike was! 😎✌️

Wild animals are quite present in the campgrounds in national parks and are not only pretty trusting but also boldly after your food. For obvious reasons, it is forbidden to feed them. So once we were just finishing supper when we saw two deer 🦌 approaching our site. Astonished we first behaved as you would in Austria: try not to make a noise, move slowly in order to avoid scaring them away. Soon we realised that they didn’t mind us at all and were drawing closer and closer. So close in fact, that we started making some noise because we feared they’d snatch away our food. They still didn’t care. 😅 In the end we hastily grabbed our leftovers and fled into the van.

Odd, I thought, in Austria you shoo away deer, in America you get chased away by them. What an upside down world! 🙃

Before leaving Zion we did the ‘Watchman’ trail in order to say farewell to this awesome place. What a great view of the Watchman this one offered!

After a very late arrival at Lake Powell at a ‘dispersed campground’ (you just take any spot you like, no designated sites) we met and had a beer with a very nice newly wed couple from New Jersey. 🍻

The ‘campground’ was basically the beach around the lake. Much of the sand was soft and part of the entertainment was to watch stuck RVs trying to get free. 😁

The following morning we woke up to realise how beautiful the surroundings were but also how very low the water level in Lake Powell was which discouraged us from swimming.

So we moved on towards Coral Sand Dunes and just stopped for some small hikes on the way:

Later we stopped in Kanab and sat in a lovely café for a couple of hours in order to do some research and plan the next few days.

Kanab has nice murals by the way:

For the night we dared going to a first come first served campground for the first time. We were really excited about it and wondering whether we totally underestimated the situation and might end up boondocking (= camping on public land, outside of a designated campground), or whether we were too anxious. (Note: we did not manage to book a site for two consecutive nights in Yosemite even though we booked in advance). Turns out we didn’t have to worry at all: Ponderosa Grove Campground was completely empty except for three or four other campers. And what a nice campground it was!

And to add some more splendour to our luck: we talked to a nice couple who stayed a few sites from ours and the man told us that there’d be a partial moon eclipse that night and we might be able to see it. 😁 And as we seemed to have a lucky streak or something we could actually see it right from our site. We took the chairs, grabbed some beer and crisps and watched the phenomenon. We were as happy as can be ☺️

Right after it was all over, clouds covered the sky and we were just super grateful that they hadn’t come earlier. 😌

The next morning we went to see the Coral Sand Dunes. I think there’s no need to explain what that is all about 😉

It’s quite amazing how many plants can actually grow in sandy conditions. 🧐😯

Super glad I only read about the wildlife in the dunes after our walk there: tarantulas 🕷️, scorpions 🦂 and of course rattlesnakes 🐍 live there. Yeah!✌️