Vacation Recap: Zion National Park, Utah

(Seriously, you should see this photo full-size. Hooray, western “big sky.”)

After a week in British Columbia, Utah may seem like an odd place to jump next. But there’s a (vaguely convoluted) reason: A few months ago, Rob earned a free reward round-trip (or two one-way segments) on Southwest Airlines. That reward would expire in September (or we could pay $50 to extend it). Our original plan had been to apply it to our return flight from Seattle to DC. But we’d waited too long or the route was too popular, and no reward seats were available for the day(s) we’d want to fly back home.

So then the conversation turned to, “Why don’t we go someplace else?” And since we’d already be on the West Coast, it made sense to do something out there. We settled on southern Utah because 1) we’d wanted to return since our trip to Arches National Park in 2008, and 2) there were Southwest reward seats available between Seattle and Las Vegas (and then we’d purchase tickets home from Las Vegas to DC).

Added bonus: We were able to coordinate with our friend and frequent travel buddy Steve to meet up in Las Vegas for this leg of the trip.

So we left temperate Seattle and flew into the desert oven that is Las Vegas. (I lived in Arizona for nine years and know very well what summer is like in the desert. But it had been a while since I’d experienced that kind of heat. A “dry heat,” yes — but incredibly intense.)

Steve had been in Las Vegas for a few days already, and we joined him at the Rio. The following morning, we hit the hotel’s massive buffet for breakfast, then packed up and checked out. This 12-hour period was my first time really experiencing the Las Vegas spectacle, and even that brief exposure was sensory overload for me. I was ready to hit the road for Utah.

The drive (in our rented Ford Focus hatchback) was about two hours from Las Vegas to St. George, Utah (where we stocked up on water and granola bars), and then another hour from there to Zion National Park.

To cut down on traffic through the park itself during the busy season, Zion encourages visitors to park in nearby Springdale or at the main visitors center, and then use the park’s shuttle system to get around. Shuttles come around quite frequently, so it’s not an inconvenience at all to leave the car behind.

Between the late hour and the looming stormclouds, we knew we didn’t have a ton of time to spend in the park. Our plan was to hit a few of the major viewpoints and take a couple of the shorter hikes. (Plus, I was tired and sinus-headachy from a head cold I’d picked up in Victoria, so I was all too happy to take it easy.) It started raining when we reached the entrance to the slot canyons at the end of the Temple of Sinawava trail, and we took shelter under a rock overhang. Once the rain passed and we ventured back onto the trail, we realized that the overhang also hosted a huge colony of creepy spiders with very long legs. The rain also cooled the surrounding air temperature considerably, from “desert heat” almost to “Seattle cool.”

We stayed in the park until sunset. The light on the surrounding mountains was beautiful and warm, and constantly changing as the sun lowered.

AT&T connectivity was near-nonexistent in the park and nearby Springdale, but I was able to get enough of a connection to look up Yelp ratings in the area. I couldn’t pull down actual reviews, but Parallel Eighty-Eight sounded intriguing enough and, driving by, didn’t look like a huge tourist trap. It was a bit fancier / pricier than we were expecting, but our meal was fantastic (mine included roasted red pepper soup, penne pasta with beef tenderloin and a rich chocolate dessert).

After dinner, we drove another hour or so northwest to Hatch, Utah, where Rob had rented a cabin for the night at Hatch Has Cabin Fever. We weren’t sure what to expect, but were quite impressed with the cabin — more spacious than we expected (room enough for a queen bed for Rob and I, plus a large pull-out bed for Steve) and well-appointed. No wifi, but AT&T 3G coverage was surprisingly robust.

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