We took our time to say goodbye to Gail (campsite owner) and Elza & Jack before we left Kanarraville for Zion National Park. We were very lucky today! We succeeded to get the last free campspot on the South Campground in Zion NP nearby the visitor center. They got even a dedicated motorcycle parking at the park. The first one we’ve seen so far! As we were early at the campsite, we just parked Jaak and Mieke and immediately left for hiking into Zion. We took the shuttlebus until the ‘Temple of Sinawava’ and hiked part of the Narrow riverside trail, went to the weeping rock and did an additional hike via the Kayenta trail to the upper emerald pools and returning to the shuttlebus via the lower emerald pools. We were happy we could manage to visit Zion as the nature was more beautiful than expected 😊.
The day after we started early ( at 6am) because of the crowds and we didn’t want to wait hours for the shuttlebus and got sunburned. We succeeded to hike up ‘til the Angels Landing. A magnificent hike with an elevation of 1488ft/453m surrounded by beautiful nature. The last part of the hike was along a steep, narrow ridge to the summit. Worth doing the effort as the view over the Zion canyon was breathtaking. Luckily we started early as the hike to the summit was so narrow that traffic jams occurred. Around noon we were back at the visitor center and decided to drive to the Coral Pink Sand Dunes. This was a completely different impressive nature phenomena. Out of the blue, pink sand dunes raised up in the pine wood. At first it was a mix of forest and desert and at the end only the dunes remained surrounded by forest and pink cliffs. Again, a real unique impression. Of course we took the chance to camp at the border of the dunes and once parked, we started a walk into the pink sand. Amazing! At night we also had a funny experience: rain in the desert!
On Tuesday we headed to Kanab with the plan to participate at the Wave lottery and we also booked tickets for the Lower Antilope canyon. The only way to visit this canyon is with an Indian guide. The rest of the afternoon we took the time to visit Kanab and review our tour and confirmed the registration for the Overland West Meeting in Flagstaff on May 18th.
Today we started the day as a real Vegas Gambler… we went to the BLM visitor center at 8.30am to register for the lottery. Only one for per participating group was accepted and received a number. There are each day 10 permits (this means a group of 4 persons = 4 permits). Chances are limited. We had the lucky number 13 out of 70 registrations. In total 5 draws have been done for the 10 permits. Unfortunately we didn’t win, but the lottery as such was already a funny event. As it is cold and rainy today we remain at the same campsite and tomorrow we’ll leave for the Lower Antilope Canyon.
