Hiking Zion National Park

I've lived in Utah for a number of years, and I had not yet been to any of the national parks. Since I get into a number of conversations where people bring up the national parks, Bri and I decided to knock two out one weekend: Zion National Park was definitely the most beautiful. Below are some of the wonderful sites we got to see.

Pro-tip: We did it during the winter months, because in the summer months you have to take a bus around to the different locations due to high traffic. If you aren't planning any difficult hikes I would recommend the tail end of winter.

Court of the Patriarchs

The first stop inside the park is a series of sandstone peaks known as The Court of the Patriarchs. These peaks are made of sandstone and are named after the biblical characters Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Emerald Pool Trails

Next on our list was a series of trails leading to three separate pools of water. Although they were pretty much empty when we were there we hear that they can be pretty full. It was a moderate hike to the top (nothing crazy), and we got tons of great pictures up the hike.

The Grotto Trail

A perfect way to get your 10,000 steps with the ol' FitBit. This trail is a leisurely one that we took from the Emerald Pool Trials to the Grotto. It carries you along side the canyon so that you can see up and down it. Once we descended by the Grotto a few deer were right next to the trail. They really didn't seem to care that we were their either. I had to wave my arms and jump around to get one of them to look up even though I was within 10 feet of him.

Carmel Highway Tunnel

When you first enter the park there is a large tunnel on the right that you can go to. We did the tunnel on the way out so that we could enjoy the scenery while resting our legs. I think that was a good choice.