Thursday, September 27, 2007

Zion National Park

While Linda is working with Best Friends, John is exploring the area surrounding Kanab, UT. This area of Southern UT is known as the Golden Circle, because of all of the National Parks in the area. These include Zion, Bryce, Grand Staircase/Escalante, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Today John decided to go to Zion. He came into the park from the East side of the park, off Hwy. 89. Once into the park, the first main stop is before the big tunnel where there's a trail that leads to the canyon overlook.

This trail climbs up the side of the canyon using the rocks as a trail. At some points it gets a little narrow. But the view at the end of the trail is spectacular!

Then, it's through the 1.1 mile tunnel that doesn't have any lights other that the headlights of the cars. The height at the center of the tunnel 13.3 feet, but at the edges of the tunnel is only 11 feet. When a tour bus or RV needs to go through the tunnel, cars are stopped at each end and the bus goes through the middle of the tunnel. Did I mention that the tunnel curves? At the end of the tunnel a series of switchbacks leads you down into the canyon and to the visitor center. From the there you can catch a shuttle to go through Zion Canyon. The views in the canyon are fantastic.

If you want to see all of the pictures John took of the park, please click on the following link:
If you have any questions or comments, please email us.

1 comment:

Jeni said...

wow, very pretty. The tunnel looks amazing too.