CANYON OVERLOOK

There is a tunnel in Zion National Park.  If you want to go from one entrance to the other entrance, you have to drive through this tunnel.  About 5 miles before you get into Springdale, there is a "mandatory" pull-off for 18-wheelers, buses, and RVs.  This pull-off tells you about the tunnel and if you are over a certain height, you cannot go through it. This gives you a chance to make other plans and other routes before you get to the park.  The tunnel was built in 1930 by the CCC and at that time, it seemed big enough for anything.  It is 13' 2" tall in the center. Most of the big RVs are taller than that.  We already knew this because Mr. W does his homework.  But, I wanted to see the tunnel.

The parking in the park fills up very early and you cannot drive private vehicles on the roads that lead you to all the scenic places and tourist shuttle stops.  That is why they have shuttle buses and strongly encourage all tourists to park outside the park and use the shuttle system.  About the only thing you can do with your private vehicle is drive through the park, from entrance to entrance.  There is a popular hike on the other side of the tunnel and it takes you to a spot called Canyon Overlook.  But, after reading the description of the hike, I was not so sure I wanted to do it.  Mr. W asked the rangers we sat by on the ranger tour about the hike and both said that it was not that bad of a hike.  Been there, heard that. What the heck, I said OK.

I think Mr. W didn't want me to change my mind, so he decided that we should do it Monday morning.  He wanted to leave fairly early, drive through the tunnel, do the hike, and then drive through some of the towns on the other side of the park.  We have a plan.

We got to the park at 8:30 and didn't have much of a wait to get in.  We soon got to the tunnel and it was really cool on the inside.  I tried to take some pics of the inside but that didn't work.  If they have not done any work to it since 1930, it is in incredible shape.  It occasionally had little "windows" cut in the outside wall of the mountain and the brick work inside was really great.  If you have a vehicle that you need to drive through the tunnel and it is tall enough that you need to drive through the middle of the tunnel, you have to buy a permit from the national park and you have to have an escort vehicle to take you through the tunnel.  They stop the traffic on the other side while you go through.  The permits aren't bad.  I think I read that that the permit is $15 and you pay $25 for the escort car.  The permit is good for 7 days.  I guess that is in case you need to come back through.

Once we drove through, the problem then became where to park to do the hike.  The information on the web said that there was a small parking area and there was but it was already full. We found a small spot for a big truck at another spot down the road.  Mr. W managed to park, very close to the edge I might add, and off we went. On the hike, not down the mountain. :)

Right off the bat we saw a big horn sheep.  I had been hoping to see something beside deer and today was my lucky day.

I had been told that the climb wasn't steep, but it was narrow and somewhat rocky.  Well, that was true, true, and true.  However, it wasn't the same kind of rocky as it had been going to the Upper Emerald Pool.  For that, I am grateful.  Here are some pics of our path to the overlook.

There is no ground under part of this. Yikes!

And I walked across it????

Some more of the trail

Can you see the people? That's where we just came from.

Some of the scenery on our way up.

There was only room for you to put one foot right in front of the other.

There were several places along the path where there was room for only one person to walk at a time. That was interesting.  But, we finally reached the top and the view was gorgeous.

Awesome.  Right?

I can't believe he is standing still.  He is usually jumping off a rock that it too close to the edge.

Looking down........ I did not take this picture!

No matter what, I'm not looking behind me!

After looking at some beautiful scenery, we started down.  On our way out of the park, Mr. W saw a trail from the side of the road that he was pretty sure was a finger canyon.  By that, I mean you walk in a very narrow area and very high walls of rock are on both sides of you.  That was pretty cool because of the formation of the rock walls.  As we got close to the exit of the park, we saw the mountain that is named Checkerboard Mountain.  By the pic, you pretty much know why it has that name.

On our way down. Part of the trail that is very narrow and has a drop off on the side.

Finger canyon

Checkerboard Mountain

This was fun and we saw some beautiful sights.  I hope to do another blog about the rest of the day, especially about one of the towns we drove through. Until next blog!