Zion National Park

Last weekend, my friends and I went camping in Zion National Park. We had made plans to go to Zion towards the beginning of the summer but knew it would be impossible to book reservations for a campsite at such a short notice (people book campsites months and months and even a year in advanced). We got really lucky for arriving on a Saturday morning. South Campground is great because you don't have to arrive super early and wait for the kiosk to open and then get a number and wait hours for a campsite to clear up
(Yosemite). We arrived at the campsite closer to 7AM after driving all night and probably waited about half an hour before a park ranger gave us instructions. We were allowed to drive through the campground and scout out any open campsites/wait for parties to leave. We found one party who was leaving and waited away! 

Zion is very clean. And beautiful. And just so great. We hiked Narrows Trail on Saturday, Angels Landing, Grotto Trail on Sunday and the Lower Emerald Pools on Monday. I'm glad we were able to do so much (sounds very little) during our trip. The hikes we went on (Narrows and Angels Landing) were very strenuous, especially Angels Landing. Narrows Trail was fun and strenuous in a way where you're walking in a river where you can't see the water or where you're even walking so be surprised to bump into rocks and trip and fall into the water. I want to say we hiked over 13 miles this weekend which is awesome! 

We even experienced thunderstorms Sunday night which was crazy! What else do you expect from the heat, right? Thank god we didn't experience flash floods while hiking the Narrows, that would have been crazy. 

The drive to Zion was not that bad. We ventured out around 11PM so the roads weren't that busy. Because Zion National Park is not up in the "mountains," it was a way easier drive. No curvy and windy roads at all. Although, driving through the Virgin River Canyon in Arizona in the middle of the night was pretty scary because of construction.Other than that, the drive was a breeze! Driving back to California was so beautiful. We took off in the early afternoon so the drive was extremely scenic and made the drive and trip that much more fun. 

xx