Written by: the Warrior

Of all the famous national parks near Las Vegas, Zion National Park was always on the top of that list. I think it’s because the name Zion is easy to remember, and it was the name of the last refuge for humans in the Matrix movies. So in other words, it had absolutely nothing to do with the actual national park.

Zion is located in the southwestern corner of Utah. And according to the US National Park Service, it’s Utah’s first national park. Encompassing an area of 232 square miles, it’s situated within the Colorado Plateau, a 390,000 sq. km. area stretching across 4 US states, including Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Zion is part of a geological formation within the Colorado Plateau named the “Grand Staircase”, where the top rock layers of the Grand Canyon is the bottom layers of Zion, and the top rock layers of Zion forms the bottom layers of Bryce Canyon.

There are three separate entrances to Zion national park. The less frequented Kolobs Canyon entrance is located on the western side of the park. The eastern entrance is accessed via the 1.1-mile Carmel tunnel and multiple hair-raising, tight turning, switch backs. And the most accessible and most visited entrance is the southern entrance near the town of Springdale.

We rolled into Springdale on the evening of Christmas day in 2023 and found that most of the town was shut down for the season. Which was odd, since this was the “resort” town for Zion National Park. As a result, we could not find a place to eat, and the only grocery store in town was chock-a-block full of people. So we began our Zion adventure with cup-a-noodle soup and cheese and crackers. Plus That Guy came down with the flu. Our hotel toilet plugged up a lot. And it was -3C. And of course we didn’t bring our winter coats, thinking that we were going south for the holidays.

But as our 3-day adventure wore on, the sheer awesomeness of Zion wore down my grumpy defenses.

Zion’s big ticket features are scattered throughout the Zion Canyon scenic drive, near the south and eastern entrances. The road is closed to private vehicles during busy times of the year, and accessible only by walking, cycling or riding the extremely, terribly managed shuttle bus system. While I truly appreciated their efforts to reduce road congestion, unfortunately they don’t run enough buses, they don’t load the buses fast enough, and they definitely don’t run them full enough, such that during my visit, I literally saw people spend most of their day waiting for the shuttle.

The good news is that you don’t actually need to venture far from the Visitor Centre to experience Zion at its finest. The extremely flat, 5.6km Pa’rus Trail is as spectacular as anything else in the national park.

The moderate, 5.3km Watchman Trail is also a stone’s throw from the Visitor Centre.

Shuttle bus stop 6 provides access to some of my very favourite trails in the park, including 4.8km Upper Emerald Pools trail…

And the 3.2km Lower Emerald Pools trail.

Shuttle bus stop 9 is the access point for the easy 3.5km Riverside Walk that leads to the famous Narrows trail, where you get to trudge through the Virgin River along side towering sandstone cliffs.

The most coveted hike in Zion is the Angels Landing trail. It’s rumoured to be beautiful and terrifying, and of course oh so popular that they needed to put in a lottery system for its handful of daily permits. (And yes rangers are stationed along the trail to check for permits).

I don’t normally play the lotteries, but I tried every day while in Zion. And on the day we were schedule to leave the park, I became one of the few, lucky, chosen ones.

So, on a cold and crisp morning, the Dragon and I braved the shuttle system, and set out, first, on the West Rim trail (6.2km).

Leaving the crowd behind at Scout Lookout, we set foot on the 1-mile return, chain assisted scramble, with cliff drops on both sides. Also known as the Angels Landing trail.

Was it beautiful? Absolutely.

Was it terrifying? Only if you looked down.

Zion was already growing on me by this point, but the sheer awesomeness of this experience completely sealed the deal and won me over.

Here in Zion, the journey is as awesome as the destination.