Our next destination after Las Vegas was Zion National Park in Utah. Note that this is one of three posts for today so don't miss the other two below!

We ended up leaving Las Vegas fairly late in the afternoon after our IHOP feast and arrived at the park entrance around 6pm. We were hoping to camp inside the park but were told at the entrance that all park campgrounds were full. This was made worse by a lack of signal which prevented us from looking up additional campgrounds online. Luckily there was a site just down the road from where we were with a spot available (although it wasn't cheap!).

This was a private campsite which meant that there wasn't a lot of space available. We were packed in like sardines but soon made friends with some of our neighbours who were from Denmark and doing their own roadtrip. There were good facilities including hot showers and a pool. It was nice to be out of the bright lights of Vegas.

The next morning we packed up early and drove back into the park. Zion in famous for it's colourful sandstone cliffs and varies environments. The park encompasses three distinct environments; the Great Basin, the Mojave Desert, and the Colorado Plateau. The result is an interesting and picturesque mix of desert plants and animals alongside lusher greenery and forests. The temperature was also much less hot (although still warm) than previous days.

Access to most of Zion Canyon (the main part of the park) is provided by a free shuttle service which we used to access a few hiking trails. The first was called the Watchmen trail which rose quickly to a lookout over the entrance to the valley. The second was much longer and visited the upper and lower Emerald Pools. This trial was very busy with many stops to let people pass.

The Emerald Pools were nice and shady and surprisingly large for the location on the mountainside. A stream that flowed from the upper pool was full of tadpoles but we never managed to find any frogs.

Tadpoles!

We felt like we deserved a treat after our hikes and drove back out of the park a short distance to a quaint diner where we got Oreo milkshakes and root beer floats. My milkshake was so think that it was almost impossible to drink.

Our goal for the night was any campground close the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Getting there involved driving back into Zion and heading through a tunnel cut through one side of the canyon. The terrain was almost more impressive on the other side and we drove past bare rock outcrops with rippled patterns of strata. The tunnel itself was long and dark with no artificial lighting at all.

The drive across Utah back toward Arizona passed quickly and we found a promising campground called Jacob Lake. We were all pretty grimy from our walks so the thought of swimming in a lake was appealing. However when we arrived at the campground we were told that Jacob Lake is in fact a "waterless mountain" and that the promised lake was a horse pond on private land.

Middle of Utah

Jacob Lake campground

We were forced to buy a bunch of cookies to make up for the disappointment. Up next is Grand Canyon.