For our last day in Zion…well, the Missus really had quite a day planned out. But first, while She was waking up; I strolled on over to the Coffee Shop located in Zion Canyon Village, Perks at Zion.
Which was the one place that seemed a bit busy.
I got the Missus a double espresso, myself and Americano, and brought it back to the room.
Perks At Zion
147 Zion Park Blvd.
Springdale, UT 84767
And the Missus was ready to go once I got back to the room.
Since, like I mentioned earlier, we were visiting right after Thanksgiving and things were pretty quiet. The shuttle had stopped running so if you got started early enough you'd easily find parking. We headed over to East Zion, thru the Zion Tunnel and parked in the small parking area right past the tunnel.
A trail started right across the street from the parking; the Canyon Overlook Trail.
This was my favorite trail of the trip. It's not very long, just a mile out and back, but I loved the amazing, diverse scenery, and the wonderful views.
There are areas with switchbacks and cliffsides, though there are railings in place at some of them, where you can see the canyon below.
At the end of the trail you are treated with an amazing view (to the right of the Missus), the West Temple, Sundial, Altar of Sacrifice, and the Beehive.
In spite of my fear of heights; I found this beautiful.
The Zion shuttle doesn't run to this area; so you'll need a car to get here.
After heading back to the car, we decided to take a drive thru East Zion along the Zion – Mount Carmel Highway. We stopped several times to take photos and just breath in the wonderful, clean air.
We stopped at the Checkboard Mesa viewpoint to take in the wonderful Sandstone Summit of Checkboard Mesa.
We then went out the East entrance and turned around. We decided to take the Zion Canyon Scenic Drive to check out places we didn't see on the previous day.
We stopped at "Big Bend" to have a look at the formations.
To the left below is the Organ, to the right, Angels Landing….I actually prefer this view to the one I had the previous day.
We drove until the end of the road, turned around and headed back to Zion Canyon Village.
However, there was a bit of a traffic back-up near the Park Lodge. First, some deer were crossing the road; then a bit further down, this fellow…..
The Missus asked me "what the heck is that turkey doing walking down the middle of the road?"
My answer? "He's celebrating that he made it through Thanksgiving!"
We got back to our room and decided to take a walk to the town of Springdale just next door.
It's a quaint village with a population of about 350…….
We saw kids getting out of school, which made me wonder how it would be growing up here.
We stopped at Sol Foods Supermarket and picked up a couple of items.
Which we had for lunch with some beef jerky back at the room.
Sol Foods Supermarket
995 Zion – Mount Carmel Hwy.
Springdale, UT 84767
After refueling, the Missus was ready to go…….so, we decided to head on back up Zion Canyon Road and this time we parked at the end and did the Zion Narrows Riverside Walk, most of which is a paved, easy, almost two mile hike.
This was an easy, almost relaxing walk along…well, the riverside of course.
At end, if you're like the Missus, you could continue and hike in the Virgin River in what they call the Narrows. But of course I was here and we didn't have the equipment necessary….
So the Missus just decided to give Her feet a soak in the Virgin River.
Before heading back to the car……
We'd had a nice relaxing day.
We really didn't feel like having more fried food or burgers and the places in Springdale we were interesting in were closed for a break following Thanksgiving. So we decided to heat up some of the packaged food we brought.
But first, we walked over to Zion Canyon Brewpub, just like we had done the previous two nights; except we'd be just having some beer before dinner. We stuck to the brwery side of things and the Missus got us one of the small tables alongside the river.
And we each had a beer before heading back to the room…..
It's hard to beat the view here…..
After the beer we strolled back to the room and proceeded to heat up our packaged meals for dinner.
We'd enjoyed our time in Zion. But tomorrow we'd be heading out to our next stop. Monument Valley!
Thanks for stopping by!