Zion National Park
If you were to drive from Grand Canyon National Park to Zion, here are a few sights en route that you can't take your eyes off..
Those are a few of my favourite pics from the album. We just had one day left in our trip and had to choose between Valley of Fire, GC Skywalk and Zion to fill the day. The decision to visit Zion was made on the last minute, and we're so glad we made it. Since Zion wasn't part of my trip homework, I should say, I literally wow-ed at each and every cliff. Its not always good to plan everything in advance, and one should always leave some room for surprise. GC was in my mind's eye since childhood, so I pretty much knew what to expect. But neither Zion nor Utah entered my google searching history till date. So, it was all surprise-surprise!!!
Not too far from Flagstaff, it takes about 2-2.5 hours to get to Springdale, UT. That's where Zion nat. park is. We did Zion in less than a day, including travel, food, etc. But for my next Utah vacation, I'll make sure I make enough time for each and every park I plan to see. Some of the rocks enroute are so stunning that you really want to pull over and click a pic. All the snaps above were captured from a moving car, else they would have been much better, with some human invasion into the foreground ;)
Look at the intricate artwork, by God, by a river, by whatever. Isn't it amazing? Such fine detailing can only be achieved by man, but to attribute this formation to nature is something I find hard to comprehend. Each time I catch a glimpse of such sculpture during this trip, my first expression would be "Woowww" and the second one would be "How?" My fellow-travellers said its all due to erosion, dinosaurs (more about this later), ice age, blah-blah. I preferred to look at it with wonder without pondering much about what caused all this.
See this one. Doesn't it look as though its the result of brushwork? I mean, somebody with really thick brushes and with a good supply of brown paint brushed a stroke across the rock. If you look at the pic below, you might agree with me.
And the brown paint, spilled over.... I find this a little mysterious though.
We're not there yet.. May be half way between Flagstaff and Zion. But I've already typed a lot. Some where close to the state border is this Glen Canyon Dam. Worth a stopover to get a closer look at the dam.
The Colorado river, chief architect of the Grand Canyon..
The Dam and lake Powell..
Entering Zion..
Now, a visit to Zion complements the GCNP trip. Reason, Grand canyon is seen from the top, so you get a top-down view. But at Zion, you get the bottom-up view. You stand at the base, almost at the river level and look up at the tall cliffs. Stunning! Also, Grand Canyon is seen from a really long distance. Unless you have some binoculars, you can't really appreciate the detailing of each and every rock. At Zion, you stand up-close to the rock and can hence, get a more closeup view. Virgin river, which is a tributary of the river Colorado, is the sculptor of the Zion canyon. Also, the top-most layers of the Grand Canyon were formed at about the same time as the bedrocks of Zion which makes Zion a relatively younger canyon. That might explain why GC is all red and only the bottom-layers of Zion are red, while the top layers mostly browns and yellows and cream. Know nothing about Geology, that's just my guess. Whoa! This paragraph reminds me of a typical answer to a "compare and contrast" question in College exams. :)
Zion national park offers more picturesque rock formations. Red, brown and cream being the primary colors of the rocks. Navigating the park is easy, can be done in 2 hours, if you don't plan to take any trails. The park is closed to private transport. You basically park at the visitor center and catch a shuttle bus to travel across the park. Because there aren't any cars around, you can enjoy the park in utter serenity. lots and lots and lots of rocks. Each bus stop is a great photo op. At some of these places, you kind of get surrounded by really really tall cliffs on all sides. Stunning and scary at the same time. The park is really peaceful, the only noise that you hear is the sound of the rapids of the Virgin river. Another interesting thing to note is that some of the roads inside the park are red sort of blackish-red. As though some of the color from the adjacent cliffs seeped into the mortar. There is lodging inside the park, I guess that'll be a memorable stay.
There are some simple trails, and some hard ones. If you do the harder ones, you'll see the top-down view of Zion canyon. There's this riverside trail which is about 1.5miles roundtrip, simple one. At the end of the trail, you'll go as close to the canyon walls as possible. You are there, two tall cliffs on either side at a hand's reach and the river in the middle. That was how the canyon was formed. We didn't have time for the trail, I so regret :(
Some, quick Zion shots..
This point below is called 'Court of the Patriarchs'. The three cliffs have been given some names too.
River that carved the Zion canyon..
When you plan a visit to Grand Canyon, make sure you have a complete day for Zion. The drive is amazing, and so is Zion. We didn't do full justice to our visit to Zion.
For some unknown/absurd reasons, I never once Googled for "Utah tourist attractions". May be I didn't like the name - Utah. Or something else, but after coming back from the trip, I've been doing a lot of research and I'm really amazed reading how much Utah has got to offer. When in Utah, try to squeeze these into your itinerary, if the pics below interest you:
Tom Cruise from MI-2: The most charming actor in an awesome location - this is what I call a "treat" to the eye. :D
Those are a few of my favourite pics from the album. We just had one day left in our trip and had to choose between Valley of Fire, GC Skywalk and Zion to fill the day. The decision to visit Zion was made on the last minute, and we're so glad we made it. Since Zion wasn't part of my trip homework, I should say, I literally wow-ed at each and every cliff. Its not always good to plan everything in advance, and one should always leave some room for surprise. GC was in my mind's eye since childhood, so I pretty much knew what to expect. But neither Zion nor Utah entered my google searching history till date. So, it was all surprise-surprise!!!
Not too far from Flagstaff, it takes about 2-2.5 hours to get to Springdale, UT. That's where Zion nat. park is. We did Zion in less than a day, including travel, food, etc. But for my next Utah vacation, I'll make sure I make enough time for each and every park I plan to see. Some of the rocks enroute are so stunning that you really want to pull over and click a pic. All the snaps above were captured from a moving car, else they would have been much better, with some human invasion into the foreground ;)
Look at the intricate artwork, by God, by a river, by whatever. Isn't it amazing? Such fine detailing can only be achieved by man, but to attribute this formation to nature is something I find hard to comprehend. Each time I catch a glimpse of such sculpture during this trip, my first expression would be "Woowww" and the second one would be "How?" My fellow-travellers said its all due to erosion, dinosaurs (more about this later), ice age, blah-blah. I preferred to look at it with wonder without pondering much about what caused all this.
See this one. Doesn't it look as though its the result of brushwork? I mean, somebody with really thick brushes and with a good supply of brown paint brushed a stroke across the rock. If you look at the pic below, you might agree with me.And the brown paint, spilled over.... I find this a little mysterious though.
We're not there yet.. May be half way between Flagstaff and Zion. But I've already typed a lot. Some where close to the state border is this Glen Canyon Dam. Worth a stopover to get a closer look at the dam.
The Colorado river, chief architect of the Grand Canyon..
The Dam and lake Powell..
Entering Zion..
Now, a visit to Zion complements the GCNP trip. Reason, Grand canyon is seen from the top, so you get a top-down view. But at Zion, you get the bottom-up view. You stand at the base, almost at the river level and look up at the tall cliffs. Stunning! Also, Grand Canyon is seen from a really long distance. Unless you have some binoculars, you can't really appreciate the detailing of each and every rock. At Zion, you stand up-close to the rock and can hence, get a more closeup view. Virgin river, which is a tributary of the river Colorado, is the sculptor of the Zion canyon. Also, the top-most layers of the Grand Canyon were formed at about the same time as the bedrocks of Zion which makes Zion a relatively younger canyon. That might explain why GC is all red and only the bottom-layers of Zion are red, while the top layers mostly browns and yellows and cream. Know nothing about Geology, that's just my guess. Whoa! This paragraph reminds me of a typical answer to a "compare and contrast" question in College exams. :)
Zion national park offers more picturesque rock formations. Red, brown and cream being the primary colors of the rocks. Navigating the park is easy, can be done in 2 hours, if you don't plan to take any trails. The park is closed to private transport. You basically park at the visitor center and catch a shuttle bus to travel across the park. Because there aren't any cars around, you can enjoy the park in utter serenity. lots and lots and lots of rocks. Each bus stop is a great photo op. At some of these places, you kind of get surrounded by really really tall cliffs on all sides. Stunning and scary at the same time. The park is really peaceful, the only noise that you hear is the sound of the rapids of the Virgin river. Another interesting thing to note is that some of the roads inside the park are red sort of blackish-red. As though some of the color from the adjacent cliffs seeped into the mortar. There is lodging inside the park, I guess that'll be a memorable stay.
There are some simple trails, and some hard ones. If you do the harder ones, you'll see the top-down view of Zion canyon. There's this riverside trail which is about 1.5miles roundtrip, simple one. At the end of the trail, you'll go as close to the canyon walls as possible. You are there, two tall cliffs on either side at a hand's reach and the river in the middle. That was how the canyon was formed. We didn't have time for the trail, I so regret :(
Some, quick Zion shots..
This point below is called 'Court of the Patriarchs'. The three cliffs have been given some names too.
River that carved the Zion canyon..
When you plan a visit to Grand Canyon, make sure you have a complete day for Zion. The drive is amazing, and so is Zion. We didn't do full justice to our visit to Zion.
For some unknown/absurd reasons, I never once Googled for "Utah tourist attractions". May be I didn't like the name - Utah. Or something else, but after coming back from the trip, I've been doing a lot of research and I'm really amazed reading how much Utah has got to offer. When in Utah, try to squeeze these into your itinerary, if the pics below interest you:
- Arches National Park
- Bryce Canyon
- Antelope Canyon
- Dinosaur tracks (UT/AZ have got plenty of them)
Tom Cruise from MI-2: The most charming actor in an awesome location - this is what I call a "treat" to the eye. :D
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