A Southern Girl and Her Suitcase: Utah: Zion & Bryce Canyon National Parks

My mister and I got married in April but decided to wait until September to take our honeymoon. Well September arrived and off we went to UTAH to complete the Mighty 5!! We landed in Salt Lake City, UT on Saturday afternoon (with the time change it was actually Saturday morning), got our all wheel drive SUV (this would come in handy a couple of days into our trip when we decided to off road 26 miles (round trip) to a particular walk/hike we wanted to visit), grabbed some lunch, and then were off to Zion National Park (about a 4 hour drive).

Once we arrived in Springdale, we checked into our hotel (right outside the park) then headed to the park to get the most of the rest of our afternoon/early evening. The town of Springdale has a shuttle that takes you not only around the town but also takes you to the park. Once you are at the park there is a park shuttle that takes you to 9 different stops within the park. We were aware of some trial closures prior to arriving at Zion but found out about some other trial closures once we arrived. Due to time, we knew we wouldn't be able to hike the Narrows but we did decide to hike to Emerald Pools. However, when we arrived the Upper Emerald Pools trial was closed so we hiked to the Lower Emerald Pools which was an easy 1.2 mile hike. Due to months without much rain, the Lower Emerald Pool was pretty dry but the hike was beautiful as is the park.

After doing our short hike, walking around some of the park areas, and catching the shuttles (park & then town), we ate dinner at Whiptail Grill. The food is delicious at Whiptail Grill and it was located right beside our hotel.

Veggie Nachos.

Hand Made Goat Cheese Chili Relleno.

The next morning we took the scenic road leaving Zion and...

...headed to Bryce Canyon. Our journey to Bryce Canyon took us through beautiful Red Canyon located within Dixie National Forest.

Hoodoos!!!

We hit the ground running (and by running I mean a little hiking and a lot of driving), when we arrived in Bryce Canyon. Bryce Canyon's elevation is pretty high which meant that it was a lot cooler than it had been in Zion. I had started the day off in shorts but by the time we left Red Canyon I had switched to pants and a long sleeve shirt.