Day started with a free breakfast that came with our room. Breakfast across the street at Oscar’s Cafe. Dick had huevos rancheros with 2 corn tortillas, beans, eggs over easy, verde sauce topped with guacamole and verde sauce. I had Pork Verde Breakfast Burrito which was a flour tortilla with scrambled eggs, pulled pork, cheese, and verde sauce topped with more verde sauce and sour cream. The best breakfast burrito I’ve ever eaten! Neither of us could eat all of our breakfast!
Then, we rode the free shuttle Springdale, UT bus to the park. Then, took a free park bus that takes riders to 5-6 different stops depending on what you want to do. There are so many more people at Zion. The park shuttle busses in Bryce were normal size busses. At Zion, they are articulated busses, the driver in the front bus followed by an attached second bus. The bus comes every 5-10 minutes. The view on the bus is spectacular. Dick described it as majestic views. Have posted one of the videos of what we saw.
Also, the drivers are sticklers for wearing masks on the bus. One of the drivers actually stopped the bus because someone wouldn’t keep their mask on while riding in the attached bus. (The bus drivers can see into the attached bus with the several cameras that are installed.) She also threatened to call the police, if they didn’t continue to wear their mask. Guess it’s a federal law.
Anyway, our first stop was at the end of the line, Stop 9 where the Riverside Walk starts.
Supposed to be an easy walk where wheelchairs could go partway. Beautiful scenery with huge rock formations on both sides of the Virgin River and our path. Like Bryce, some paths were very narrow and had inclines where wheelchairs couldn’t go. Saw a deer grazing. Walked to the end of the Riverside Walk where the Narrows starts. You can actually rent waterproof boots and a walking stick to walk the rocky, shallow river for 6 miles. Boot and stick rental were somewhere around $100+. The rocky part and the 6 mile walk deterred us from taking the Narrows. With Dick’s knee surgery scheduled for the end of the month, decided that this was not a great idea.
NOTE: The Riverside Walk and Narrows were closed for about 18 hours. There was a rock slide yesterday where someone got hurt. The rangers needed to assess the situation before reopening. Fortunately, they opened it about 8:40 this morning.
From the Riverside Walk, we hopped on the bus, and got off at Stop 8 where the California condor can be spotted.
Luckily, we did spot two condor. Majestic birds. Tried to edit a photo, so hopefully, you can see the condor description on the banner in the photo.
Next stop, pick up lunch at The Lodge. Shared a ham and cheese sandwich and chips.
One more walk to the Grotto, 1/2 mile walk from The Lodge. Some narrow paths. Employees live in the park and often, you’d see signs that say, Private Residence.
Back to the hotel. Oh yeah, the day started with 50 something weather and ended up after the park in 93 degree weather! So, a dip in the pool. Checkout the view of the mountains from the pool. You might also find Dick in the pool! With this dry weather, bathing suits dry out in no time out on the patio.
Dinner at Dulivia Italian restaurant. What a view of the mountains and what a dinner! Cocktails before dinner, Jack Daniels single barrel with ginger ale and an Old Fashion. (John, Old Fashion was almost as good as yours!)
Appetizer, fried soft shell crab, calamari, and zucchini. Both of us had Tagliatelle Bolognese. And, Tiramisu for dessert! Delicious all the way around. We even got moon over the mountains.
Tomorrow, we are headed to Mesa Verde National Park near Cortez, CO which means traveling through 4 states: UT, AZ, NM, and CO. Lot of packing to do, so adios!
2025-02-18