Zion National Park
TRAVEL ROUTE: Page, AZ - US 89 - Mount Carmel Junction, UT - UT 9 - Zion National Park - I-15 - Las Vegas, NV
September 23, 2006 — Because we missed Antelope Canyon the day before, we decided to try, again, before we left the Page area. We drove back on SR 98 a couple of miles to the canyon parking lot and inquired about rates, times, etc. But remember, you're in Navajoland and the National Parks Service's writ doesn't run, here, as we would soon find out.
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The parking rates are fairly modest, at $12 per car, but the rub comes when you find out that you must pay $15 per person to be transported by truck the two miles to the slot canyon entrance - a total of $42 for a couple of minutes in Upper Antelope Canyon. The excuse was that it was too far and too difficult to walk and that we might get lost along the way. I suggested that if we just followed the road that the truck took, we might be able to find our way in, but we were told, simply, that they didn't allow walkers (and if I could get $15 a head, I probably wouldn't allow them, either).
We decided against visiting Antelope Canyon that day on the grounds that free enterprise is one thing, highway robbery another. We'll do the canyon next time around, outrageous fee or not, but we were on a time schedule and never having driven the roads we were about to travel, we wanted to make sure we didn't put any more pressure on ourselves than necessary.
Some provincial easterners have a view of the American west that is largely formed by the cowboy movies and bedtime stories of our early years. Bumpy stagecoaches, parched earth, bloodthirsty Indians, lawless gunslingers, arduous cattle drives, poisonous rattlesnakes, dusty, rutted wagon tracks winding through sagebrush-covered deserts - it was not for nothing that they called it the "Wild West."
But, this has all changed. Oh, the ground is still plenty parched, and the rattlesnakes are probably still there (although we've never seen one), but the Indians aren't bloodthirsty and the rest are long gone. The roads are wonderful, by eastern standards - wide, straight, smooth (you have to go off-road to find a pothole).
Our route west from Page on US 89 would take us across Glen Canyon Dam and through the southern-most canyons of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area which look for all the world like something out of J.R.R. Tolkien and give the impression of being the ruined outer defenses of an ancient race of giants. The road took us past the colorful badlands of Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, along and over the Vermillion Cliffs of southern Utah, past sand dunes colored salmony-coraly-pink and rose into some very serious-looking mountains which are the home of Zion National Park.
If population centers are your thing, you won't find many on this route. After Page, you pass by the not-so-big town of Bigwater, Utah, you'll go through Kanab, Utah and Mount Carmel Junction, where you'll pick up UT 9 West for the final leg of the 100-ish mile trip to Zion. Of the three, Kanab is, by far, the most substantial and offers everything you'll need in the way of food (fast and otherwise), lodging and travelers' services.
Zion National Park, at least in the best-known areas, is basically a deep canyon which the mostly benign Virgin River babbles through (in season, though, it can rage with the best of them). It was, unfortunately, not within the scope of our travel schedule to spend any time here, at all. Our itinerary called for an overnight in Las Vegas and an early departure the next morning. Since Vegas was still another 150 miles away, and since it was after 2 PM when we arrived, we could only drive through and get a quick impression of the park.
Entering from the east on Utah Route 9 is the most secnic way to approach. From the massive Checkerboard Mesa near the east entrance to the Visitors Center on your way out, you will be in constant, jaw-dropping awe as you wind through the impossibly steep-walled canyons and bizarrely-shaped rock formations. Since you're about 6000 feet ASL, here, the sky will be a deep blue that provides a colorful backdrop for everything you see.
A highlight of your trip through Zion will be the 1 mile+ long Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel that the road follows through the mountains on the way into the valley. Unlike all other tunnels you've ever been through, this one is totally dark. No electric lights, no candles, no phosphorescent glowing, nothing - kind of like the "Space Mountain" ride at Disneyworld/land. All you have to guide you are your car's lights and an occasional "window" in the rock walls thoughtfully cut by the engineers that built the tunnel 70 years ago. If you're claustrophobic, this is definitely NOT going to be your favorite part of the trip, but if you endure to the end, you'll be rewarded, coming out of the tunnel, with one of the most impressive views in the western US, of Pine Creek Canyon.
We picked up I-15 just north of St. George, Utah, the location of Brigham Young's winter home, and covered the 115 miles to Las Vegas in a hurry. The only remarkable stretch of highway comes upon you, suddenly, as I-15 clips the far northwestern corner of Arizona and where the Virgin River cuts a gorge through the mountains. Here, you'll join the river in a 10-mile, high-speed sluiceway down through the deep, dark canyons and out into the blinding light of the desert. This is as much fun as you can legally have in a car on an interstate highway!
The rest of the trip is anti-climax as you drive through the incredible emptiness of Nevada. And speaking of incredible emptiness, your first view of Las Vegas is as a smoggy smudge wallowing on the valley floor as you approach from the northeast - you have to get a bit closer to be able to discern any glitz through the haze.
Never having been in Las Vegas, before, we did an obligatory drive through town at night and were impressed at the amount of colored neon that seems to have collected here. Other than that, we're happy to let whatever else might happen there, stay there.
Next Stop: Rhyolite Ghost Town: Gateway to Death Valley
Travel to One of These Other Fascinating Locations:
Sedona, AZ
Grand Canyon, AZ
Monument Valley, UT
Lake Powell, AZ
Zion NP, UT
Rhyolite, NV
And, Coming Very Soon...
Death Valley NP, CA
US 395 & Owens Valley, CA
Mono Lake, CA
Bodie, CA
Yosemite NP, CA
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