This morning we went to Zion National Park. It was a little over an hours drive from the campground in our rental vehicle. I didn’t want to have to pack up the whole RV to leave and return, then do the same tomorrow for our trip to Bryce Canyon, so I spent the $ for the rental. I find pluses and minuses with this.  The big minus is putting everything away, including putting Fred’s crate back onto the dinette and preparing the RV to close the slide.  The big plus is not worrying about all of the things I forgot to transfer to the rental car, like short sleeved shirt for the warmer part of the day at Zion. Regardless, I will get this stuff all figured out as we keep doing it.

This morning it was a chilly 35 degrees here in Cedar City when we got up at 6:30 AM. By the time we go to the fee station line at Zion, it was almost 60 degrees thank goodness! Temps when we returned to Cedar City were in the mid 60’s and will drop to the 30’s again tonight.

There’s only one trail allocated for dogs at Zion – the Pa’rus Trail. It’s a short walk from the Visitors Center and winds about 1.5 miles through the canyon along the Virgin River. Unfortunately the Virgin River is full of those nasty algae toxins and is off limits to humans and dogs alike so it did not get added to our count of swimming holes.

After walking the trail, we drove along the Zion-Mount Carmel Scenic Byway and Tunnel. It was a pretty neat drive with lots of overlooks for photo ops. 

Once we were done in the main area of Zion, we went over to Kolob Canyons and drove the 5 mile scenic highway there. More overlooks for photo ops, including seeing some folks climbing the face of one of the rocks. It’s kind of impressive because while they seem so high, in perspective of the full canyon wall, they are not high at all. 

Next stop:  Bryce Canyon