I took a trip out to Zion for a tour. It was a really nice trip with a great bus driver and a nice new 16 passenger Mercedes van. The brochure mentioned it was good for walking and hiking and indeed it is. If you take your own car or motorhome and plan to camp for a week, I'm sure there is a lot more to see. On a quick day tour, it involved going to the lodge then catching a shuttle that makes stops along a scenic road where you can take pictures or follow a hiking trail. The shuttle makes about 10 stops along the scenic road which is about 7 miles long and follows a river up the canyon. One of the stops is a lodge with a restaurant and snack bar. Another stop is a visitors center and one is a museum. The rest are just hop on and off stops to pick up trails.

I had a great time. My first venture was an easy trail hike to a pool where water from the mountain pours out in a nice spray and makes an emerald colored pool before continuing down to help form the river. Water collects in the sandstone and goes down in the mountain until it hits a layer of non pours rock and then the water drips out the side of the mountain. It was a nice easy hike, but I went ahead and proceeded up the mountain higher and higher. Every time I started to get weak and tell myself that I'm too old for this, I ran into someone who was older than me. So that was my incentive to keep going. It was a really hot day and I didn't bring enough water for that kind of hiking. Then, coming down, I took a different path that was longer and more difficult.

I took a shuttle back to the lodge and rehydrated and cooled down. Then I took the shuttle back to the various stops and got out, took pictures, and caught the next shuttle to the next stop. I was through hiking.

We had a solid 4 hours to hike, ride the shuttle, and visit any of the stops along the shuttle route. The tour even provided a lunch voucher good at either the restaurant or snack bar.

It was a nice park that was scenic and fun. It's nice having the river all along the way because it's really shallow and you can walk through it to cool down. Also the breeze along the river was nice. The scenery was really good on this tour. The road through the mountains just before St George is very scenic. The little towns in Utah between the interstate and the park look interesting. This park is a hikers dream. There are wheelchair accessible paths, easy hiking trails, and all the way up to very extreme and challenging hikes. And if you bring your own car and camping equipment, there are tons more activities.

I was very occupied the whole time. There was never a dull moment. There was plenty to see and do. I made some nice friends along the way. The tour company did a great job.

Glad you liked the tour. It was nice meeting you and thanks for letting me know about this site.

Mark,

How many miles long is that scenic route that the shuttles loop through?

Thanks again for the great service.

JMT - How far is Zion from Las Vegas? Sounds like a great time!

I don't know about distance. I can drive to St George Utah in under 2 hours. Then it's less than an hour to the Zion park.

Just before St George, there is several miles of road that cuts through the mountains and is really beautiful. It's the highlight of my trips to the Tuachan theater.

Then the drive to the park starts getting some great scenery as you know you are approaching Zion. About 30 minutes out, you start passing through some small towns that you just want to stop and check out the shops and scenery. Some are based on tourism, and some are just cool.

And all of that is just getting there. Once you're there, there's more to do. If you take your own car to the park, there is another scenic drive you can take that sounds like fun.

I think the road is six miles long from the Visitors Center to the end. They say it would take you a hour and a half to do the whole loop on the shuttle without getting off because of all the stops along the way.

Thanks Mark. I hope Ian and Helen made it home okay and join us on TalkVegas.

I haven't heard from them yet. We should be getting our cards in the mail soon though. I will have to send him a email to see how they are doing.