18 October 2017, Wednesday

Kodachrome Basin State Park to Zion National Park

Colds don’t help one’s sleep, especially not when camping. O and I finally give up on more sleep at 5:15 am. Luckily, the morning is not nearly as cold as the past two mornings have been. It’s actually a bit above freezing! We pack up in the dark and head for Zion. When we arrive, there is already a long line for the first come – first serve camp sites at the South Campground. We just squeak in under the wire, scoring one of the last open spots.

Despite our fatigue and our pre-sunrise departure from Kodachrome Basin, we find the drive from route 89 W along Route 9 into Zion absolutely breathtaking! We drive through some of the tallest, if not the tallest, sandstone cliffs in the world. Along Route 9 is a deep, cross-bedded layer of sculpted Navaho sandstone. It looks, in places, as if supernatural hands crafted these mountains a block at a time. We drive through tunnels and long switchbacks as we wind through the spectacular landscape. Our fatigue disappears, at least temporarily, as we gaze in wonder. We will have to drive the route again when we have time to take photos. We were in too much of a hurry today to get a campsite to stop at the pull-outs.

After we set up Wglwof at site 123, our fatigue returns. We have not yet had breakfast and it is already 11:30 am. I choose “restaurant” as a search on our GPS. At the top of the list is Zion Brew Pub in Springdale, only 5 minutes away. So much for breakfast. It seems we’ll be having lunch instead. After lunch we ride the Zion shuttle up the canyon. The white Navaho sandstone peeks out between the tall red Kayenta sandstone cliffs. We stop at the Human History museum where we learn that the original name of this park, when it was first declared a National Monument in the early 1900’s, was Mukuntoweap, a Native American (?Paiute) word meaning “straight up land.” At the end of the park road, I take a short walk up the Virgin River Canyon while O rests at the shuttle stop.

We return to camp ready for an early bedtime. Still fairly full from lunch, we bake a chocolate chip brownie for dessert, which we eat accompanied by coffee yogurt. We are hoping for a good night’s sleep and more energy tomorrow.