Doing Zion Justice

Not only a good night’s sleep but also an excellent breakfast turned out to be included in the $130 per night for the hotel in La Verkin, not quite sure how they pull that off. It does make a difference having a good start to the day.

We’ve visited Zion Canyon three times over 30 years, but previously always come away feeling underwhelmed. We therefore set off into the park with moderate expectations, but a bit more time to spend than under the original plan. First contact reinforced our concerns, as traffic was slow, parking difficult and purchasing our parks pass effectively impossible due to IT issues. We filled our water bottles and headed to the mandatory shuttle bus.

The drive up the valley teased with great views and I worked my techniques for photographing from inside a moving vehicle, however when we got to the end the river walk from the Temple of Sinawava was crowded and uninspiring. Fortunately things got better at the next stop, with a well-lit soaring vista to admire.

Once again Martres’ instructions paid dividends. He has assigned the name "Photo Point" to "40 feet below the unnamed car park between stops 8 and 7" and with good reason as you can get great compositions including both The Organ and The Great White Throne. I was battling flare due to the Sun’s position, but hopefully I have some rewarding shots.

The Zion Lodge has a beer garden, in which you can buy a beer without falling foul of the complexity of Utah licensing laws, of which more later, so that’s icing on the scenery’s cake.

We drove out through the East Entrance. On previous visits we’ve never really been happy with the lighting on that scenery, but today even though the sun was still fairly high in a clear blue sky everything had a warm glow and we stopped for shots at each turnout.

We came away feeling that we’d finally done Zion justice. Maybe it just helps doing it as an early stop not one of the last on the traditional Grand Circle tour. You can’t escape the fact that it’s overcrowded, but get away from the fixed routes and it is a gem.