We spent the end of day 24 and the first half of day 25 at Zion National Park. Upon arrival we found it fitting that we had arrived from the Grand Canyon because Zion National Park feels a lot like the opposite of the Grand Canyon. At the Grand Canyon you stand at the top of the canyon rim and look down into this massive canyon with the Colorado River below. But at Zion you are in the canyon, you get to drive through it and get close to the Virgin River that goes through it. Above is a photo snapped of a buffalo roaming. There were a decent number of them just outside the park.

Above you can see the Virgin River, which scientists believe to be the reason for the Zion Canyon - no glaciers here! There are lots of family friendly hiking opportunities in Zion National Park, we did a few of the easy hikes in and around the Virgin River. There is a shuttle bus that takes you around certain parts of the park that are closed to cars. It’s much more peaceful that way, and you don’t have to worry about finding a parking spot.

One of the canyon walls caught in the late afternoon sun light. We saw a few rock climbers on some of these walls. There are some routes that climb over 1,500 feet. Zion National Park is the second most popular big wall climbing National Park in the US - we even saw a few climbers who were camped out for the night about half way up one of the walls. That’s intense.

A local artist captures the beauty of the canyon on canvas. One of the more fun things for us to do in the park was to drive through the 1.1 mile long tunnel that was dug out through the bottom of one of the sandstone cliffs. It’s a very tight and confined space that you have to drive slowly through, but it was a lot of fun to drive.