Zion's Gate RV Resort (by Asher)

Julie - September 21, 2021

Here's a preview of Bryce Canyon National Park

Technically, this first part isn't about Zion's Gate, but I wanted to include it. I was looking at gas for dad on the way, and I found a cheap gas station that was $3.25 a gallon. This might not seem cheap, but if you take into account that a normal, cheap gas price in southeast Utah is $3.75 a gallon, then you might be thinking differently. The reason that it's much cheaper is that it's on an Indian reservation, so there isn't tax on it. Because I found it for dad, I saved him around $40 on gas.

Zion's Gate is a pretty big place. The roads there are made of concrete slabs unlike the asphalt or gravel roads at other places. It has an indoor pool and a (big) hot tub.

Monday, the day after we got there, was the start of school. We checked out the pool and hot tub (of course), and after we were done, mom made us steak for dinner.

(For those of you who don't know, dad gave up meat for this year, starting at his birthday, Sep 6. He said the steak was his first big test.)

One of the things that I was excited about was that there was a library in the town! We would go after school and read until closing time.

After the library one day, we picked up food from a Wendy's. (Their credit card machine wasn't working so we may have received a free dinner or we may have paid for it twice) [Editors note: It was free.] and went to a park. It had a playground but that wasn't what we played on the most since it had a splash pad.

We started a book called the Mysterious Benedict Society, book two.

We drove to Walmart and I bought two movies for when we are riding in the car: Sonic the Hedgehog and How to Train your Dragon 1-3.

Caleb and I walked/ran back from Walmart and went faster then the car. Why do you think?

This is why. There is a little trail going from the gas station to the RV park.

Saturday we went to Zion National Park. There's only 400 parking spaces to go around and they had a problem with so much car traffic in the in the national park that cars were parking illegally down the side of the road. Yeah, not good. The solution? Ban cars from entering the park! Also, if you already looked at the map in the link, then you'll know that they switched to using shuttle buses.

The visitors center is designed to be super energy efficient.

We rode the bus to the Zion Lodge stop and did the emerald pools trail, which has the lower, middle, and upper pools. At the upper pool it started to rain. I scrambled up a rocky slope and waited under a big rock about 30 feet above the trail. When it stopped raining I went back down to the pool with the others and of course it starts raining again. At the emerald pools there were giant cliffs around us.

We rode the shuttle to the Temple of Sinawava, the last shuttle stop, and did the riverside walk. There were hanging gardens: plants that grow on the side of the cliff. I actually walked more along the river next to the trail then I walked on the trail. The river was very cold. Caleb and I had a lot of fun playing on the rocks and trying to get across the river without getting wet. On the way back we found two squirrels that had obviously been fed.

Peek-a-Boo

So cute! (Other then the fact that they were fed. But we did not feed them.)

When we got home it was 9:00. Mom made pasta for dinner and it tasted SO GOOD!

The next day we went to Bryce Canyon National Park.

First, we went to the end of the scenic drive and ate lunch at rainbow point. (You may be wondering why the first thing we did when we got to Bryce Canyon was have lunch. It's because it took two hours to drive there.) After lunch we stopped at the overlooks on the way back.

The Amphitheater

This looks like a palace, doesn't it?

The famous part of Bryce Canyon is a part called The Amphitheater. There are four famous viewpoints, Bryce Point, Sunset Point, Sunrise Point (which faces west), and Inspiration Point. In my opinion, Inspiration Point was the best.

Starting at Sunset Point we walked the Navajo Loop Trail. We saw Thor's Hammer, Two Bridges, and Wall Street. (Side note, if you ever go to Bryce Canyon and to this trail, go clockwise around it, towards Two Bridges. It's easier with less uphill switchbacks, but there's a bunch of switchbacks both ways since it goes into and out of a canyon) Wall Street is a slot canyon (Purple area on the map).

Thor's Hammer

Two Bridges

A hoodoo that looks like a castle

A tree in a canyon

Slot Canyon

We found out that Ponderosa Pine trees smell like vanilla.

After the Navajo Loop Trail, we drove north to Mossy Cave Trail (first map). We hiked to a waterfall and a rock edge that looks like this in winter:

Instead, it just dripped.

Then we went to the visitor center to get our junior ranger badges. We also got a sticker that said "I HIKED THE HOODOOS!" We had to hike three trails with a "I Hiked The Hoodoos" benchmark on it.