Zion National Park ~ Day 1

First, a little background on us we are two retirees aged 60-70 and our experience may be different than yours if you're a younger group or family.

We spent three nights exploring this beautiful park. We are from the south and did not know what type of weather we should expect.  Friends told us to expect snow, that turned out not to be the case. We could not have asked for more beautiful weather for our three days in the park.

We stayed on the grounds in the Zion National Park Lodge. The views alone made it worth every penny we paid for the cabin. 

We normally travel on points and miles which we could have used in Springdale right outside the park. But we wanted the total experience of staying inside the park.  We stopped and bought breakfast items as well as some lunch items to bring with us. We budgeted for three meals inside the park lodge restaurant, The Red Rock Grill.

We totally enjoyed our cabin stay.  Go here for our review.  

Our first day we did two short hikes. The first hike was along the Sand Beach Trail which we walked from the lodge grounds. This hike follows along the side of the Virgin River, we just hiked two hours round-trip.

We saw several deer, some turkeys and totally enjoy the scenery.  

Next, we drove along the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway. The views on this highway were simply incredible!

We were totally excited to spot our first Longhorn sheep right outside the tunnel.  

I took several photographs while they ate and seemed to be enjoying this beautiful warm day in the sun.

Because it was off-season, there was very little traffic as we continued our way to the east entrance.

For our second hike we did the Riverside Walk at the Temple of Sinawava.  We continued a little bit longer past the handicap turn around, this hike was a little more challenging with a lot of steep inclines but pretty.

We ran out of energy just as the daylight was quickly fading.  We decided to head back to our cabin to get ready for Dinner.

After reading conflicting reviews regarding the Red Rock Grill at the lodge, I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty it was. I had the bison burger with sweet potato fries while Hubby decided on the Pa’rus Pasta with squash and other vegetables.  Both were very good.