Days 9–11: Zion

I took my time getting from Capitol Reef to Zion — I stopped at the Otter Creek reservoir to swim and shower, and got lunch in Koosharem before making it to my free campsite for the night in the Uintah Flat dispersed camping area.

Not having done much research beforehand I wasn’t sure what to expect from Zion. My original plan was to just drive to the Zion Ponderosa Ranch resort where I had booked some glamping, but I found myself outside the park at 11am so I decided to go in and check it out as well as pick up my permit for an overnight backpacking trip down the Narrows. The drive in from the east showcases the otherworldly beauty of the park — truly stunning. But the park was also extremely busy getting there that late. There was no parking available so I had to pay for parking outside of the park and walk in.

It was raining all morning, so I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to hike the Narrows the next day. The ranger was very hesitant but ended up giving me the permit along with plenty of words of warning. He recommended that I rent a wetsuit to do the hike so I walked out of the park to an outfitter and was met with the same hesitancy. They told me that if conditions didn’t look good I could return the gear for free so that I didn’t feel pressured to do the hike.

After that I did some short hikes — Weeping Rock and Emerald Pools — before heading out to Zion Ponderosa for a shower and a real bed.

On my drive back to Zion Ponderosa I got a call that the park service had canceled all shuttles to the Narrows trailhead for the next day, so I had to make some adjustments to the plan. I woke up early to avoid the parking frenzy again and returned my gear before heading to the Narrows to do it bottoms up. I got off the shuttle around 9:30 and hiked 6.5 miles into the Narrows before turning around. It was a nice day, and I was fine in shorts and Keens, but hiking poles made the walking on the rocky river bottom much easier.

When I got back to the visitor’s center I got confirmation that I had a permit for Angel’s Landing the next morning. Now I technically still had a permit to spend the night in the Narrows — and along with that came a permit to leave my truck in the visitor’s center parking lot overnight. So I took some interpretive liberties and spent the night in the truck in the visitor’s center parking lot. Around 8:30pm the parks service came knocking on the truck, but eventually went away. I woke up at 5:30 and took the first shuttle, which was completely full. The chains on Angel’s Landing made that whole portion breathtaking, and the views from the top were awe-inspiring. There was one person up there when I arrived — they had ridden their bike to the trailhead before dawn and said they had a whole hour of solitude up there. Pro move. I spent an hour up there shooting timelapse footage and waiting for the sun to come out from behind the clouds, which it never really did. I did meet a pair of very aggressive chipmunks and saw a pair of California condors — quite the spectacle.