Day 09 – Cedar City, UT to Zion to North Rim of Grand Canyon – July 3rd, 2007

Just a stones throw from Cedar City was Zion another major national park, which was totally different then I was expecting. Zion is the opposite of Bryce in some regards because it is another large canyon, but you are at the bottom of the canyon and all of the trails lead up to the top. We had no where near enough to time to fully explore the area. I really want to revisit this place some time to explore into the Zion narrows as the canyon narrows to just the river, or hike the trails up to the highest peaks (Just not when its ridiculously hot). Inside the park we saw some deer and a lot of other forest wildlife.

Leaving Zion we drove through a historic 1 mile one way tunnel out of the park, which dropped us in the desert on the other side. After crossing the short desert we went up a plateau, which lead to the beginning of the Kaibab National Forest. It was surprising to see the how quickly the landscape could change into dense forest. Everything in the south west is in desperate need of rain and it became evident when we drove through a few miles of a scorched forest. The forest was full of wild life including more deer and in the middle of no where… we were 50 miles from the first thing they called a town and probably 70-80 miles to the first real town.

The Grand Canyon was beyond words and once again we didn’t have enough time to explore it. It’s a weird feeling to be looking down a straight mile… and even more unnerving to sit on the edge. Doing some short hiking out to a point we were able to chill and take in the views for a while. That night before turning in I noticed how many stars you could see… I don’t think I’ve ever seen the starts that bright or that many. It was nice to finally be in a cool climate for a change as well. The entire trip we haven’t seen a single cloud since Indiana, and for that reason it has been constantly hot with a side of extremely sunny.