Day 3: Zion to Bryce Canyon National Park

The Watchman Trail in Zion National Park
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Day three began early. Donna and Lindsay called me about 10:30 p.m. the night before and had just gotten into Springdale. They went up to the campground in Zion National Park and made camp there for the night. We made plans to meet at 8 a.m. near their site.

I packed the rest of my gear and headed over to the Pioneer Internet Cafe to check my emails. If I don't check my email every few days it gets overloaded with junk mail. So I spent about 20 minutes clearing out my inbox and writing to friends. Then I went back to the Bumbleberry Motel to check out.

we found ourselves laughing nervously as we clung to walls on the sides of cliffs trying to pass other hikers

Great Arch on Zion/Mt. Carmel Highway in Zion National Park
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I next entered Zion National Park. I stopped in the Visitor's Center to get my Passport stamped and to fill up my Camelback with water. I found Donna and Lindsay's site at the Watchman Campground inside the park. We all took a look at the map and decided to hike the Watchman Trail first.

The Watchman Trail is located very close to the Visitor's Center and is rated a Moderate hike, it has an elevation gain of 368 ft, and is about 3.5 miles roundtrip. The trail is rocky and thin and it switch-backs several times. You start out in the valley and ascend 368 ft. to an overlook of Springdale, Zion Canyon and Oak Creek Canyon. You also get great views of the Watchman and the Sentinel. The park literature says this trail can get crowded but we saw only one other hiker on the trail when we were there. We took quite a few pictures here since the Watchman was really offset by the sun coming up.

Me at the top of the Canyon Overlook Trail in Zion National Park
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Prior to their arrival in Utah Donna and Lindsay had been on the road for 3 weeks camping, hiking and exploring other National Parks all over the US. So while we hiked the Watchman I heard stories of the Redwoods, Death Valley, the Black Hills and many other great parks. It sounded like they were having a great time.

After we finished the Watchman Trail we decided to drive the Mt. Carmel Highway to get to the Canyon Overlook Trail. Along the way we stopped at the Great Arch and the Checkerboard Mesa to take a few pictures. We parked the car and started the ascent to the Canyon Overlook Trail.

The crazy trail along the side of the cliff on the Canyon Overlook Trail in Zion National Park
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The Canyon Overlook Trail is rated a moderate hike, with a 63 ft elevation change, 1 mile roundtrip and has long drop offs. This was a fun, windy trail and we found ourselves laughing nervously as we clung to walls on the sides of cliffs trying to pass other hikers and tourists along the way. Parts of this trail are rocky and some are slick, the most dangerous parts have some chain-link fence up but there are sections that are exposed to drop-offs. You need to be careful when you're on this trail.

Red Canyon outside of Bryce Canyon National Park
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When we finally got to the top we could see the entire Canyon and the Mt. Carmel Highway we drove to get there. It really is a great view. We took a ton of pictures and hung around awhile just enjoying the sun and the scenery. We hiked back down to the car drove back down the Mt. Carmel Highway to the Watchman Campground.

We decided to move onto Bryce Canyon since it was going to take about an hour and a half to get there. Donna and Lindsay started to rip down their tent while I went back into Springdale to get gas and some snacks and drinks for the rest of the day. I met them back at the campground and we drove out the Mt. Carmel Highway to leave the park and access routes 89, 12 and 63 to get to Bryce. Just as before along the way we came across very few cities but the ones we did had much lower speed limits, and at the beginning and the end of each little town we saw cops with speeding traps set up.

Pine Creek Canyon on the Canyon Overlook Trail in Zion National Park
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Outside of Bryce Canyon National Park we came across Red Canyon, small area of red rock and the eerie looking hoodoos. We got out of the cars to take a few pictures before continuing on. We stopped just outside of Bryce Canyon National Park at a little convenience store to get some things for dinner. We picked up some cans of raviolis and spaghetti-os and fixing for smores. We decided to rough it and camp at the first campground near the park that we found.

As it happens the first open campground we came across was North Campground inside Bryce Canyon National Park. The cost to camp in the National Parks is relatively cheap. Donna and Lindsay had a tent and I rented a SUV with back seats that fold down so I could sleep in there. I brought along my Kelty sleeping bag which is rated down to -20 degrees and I was very glad to have it. No one was on-duty at the ranger's station in the campground so we took one of the site selection forms, found a site that suited us, filled out the information and dropped it and the camping fee off at the box at the ranger's station.

Mule deer scat on our site at the North Campground at Bryce Canyon National Park
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It was getting dark as we were setting up camp and we noticed alot of animal scat around the site we selected some looked fresh and there were not alot of other people in the campground so it made me a bit nervous about what might be around the area. It took awhile since we didn't have kindling or alot of firewood but Lindsay and I managed to get a fire going. We threw our cans of raviolis in the fire to cook. In the meantime Lindsay got out guitar and started to play and sing.

Night fell and it was the first time in my life I really saw stars.....I couldn't believe it. I thought I could see stars on the east coast but my god the clarity you can see out west is unbelievable. You could see all the major stars and constellations but you could see these teeny tiny stars in between all over the place and shooting stars. It was amazing.

A few minutes later a loud explosion from the fire announced that the raviolis were done..we forgot to make a big enough opening in the can for the heat to escape and the can sorta burst! We had sauce all over us. But we ate it anyway and had a good time. When we tried to get cleaned up is when we discovered that the showers were closed for the season.......yuck! So we stayed up for a while talking, playing the guitar and eating smores before we went to bed.

During the middle of the night I could hear alot of commotion on our site but it was so dark that I couldn't see anything. Donna and Lindsay weren't making any noise so I figured everything was ok and fell back to sleep...........

Things learned on Day 3 out west:

1. Bryce Canyon National Park website http://www.nps.gov/brca/

2. When the park maps cite that there are long drop-offs and people with a fear of heights should avoid the trails they are not kidding.

3. Watch your speed going through little towns in Utah, we saw many speeding traps set.

4. Red Canyon website http://www.zionnational-park.com/red-canyon-utah.htm

5. The cost to camp in the National Parks is relatively cheap. Make sure you register with the rangers, or if no one is on duty fill out the form and drop the form and fee off in the designated boxes.

6. In off season you run the chance that the showers at the campgrounds are closed.

7. Keep an eye out around your camp site for animal scat, fresh deposits mean that the animal is in the area!