These National Parks are HOT – no really, it was 108 degrees (Utah – Zion and Bryce Canyon) plus How is Craig Doing?!

Thank

We stayed at a newer RV park called Southern Utah RV resort. It was about 1 hr from Zion and about 2.5 hours to Bryce. We are pulling out now and Craig said “no one rented the hot tub and I don’t know why.” The RV park had a trailer with a hot tub at the front saying you could rent it and they would pull it to your site. They were in the process of digging a pool. The average temp while we were there was 105 and while it was a dry heat, we were higher in elevation and it felt like you were burning immediately.

We went through Zion and it was so busy, we decided to keep driving to Bryce.

We didn’t do Zion until Monday, but I am going to add them here. We (*I*) mistakenly thought if we could get there by 7:30 am on a Monday, we could find parking and wouldn’t have an issue. I was wrong, it was still nuts. We decided to stay off the shuttle and just do one hike. I had a few after a lot of research, but… we did Zion Overlook Trail because you can park there. I wanted to do sunrise, but it was at 6:11 am and I thought between waking up the family, one hour drive and hiking in dark on rocky trail that sometimes gets narrow with a 3 year old and adventurous 8 year old, that we were best to go after sun was up. We got there at 7:20 and no spots anywhere close so we had to pretty much hike to get to our hike. One of the girls might have cried while having to walk back to the car after. But, it was truly a fun hike for kids. Rock paths to climb, some steeper that are slippery and required a handrail they had, an over cliff that felt cool in the heat and like a cave, a narrow area that required creativity. Only a few places were truly beg Zoe to quit acting like she is on the Ninja course. And, at the end – the view was gorgeous. You could see the windy road way below, the canyons opened up, the chipmunks were in excess and the beauty was surreal. If you only have a day in Zion, do this short hike (only 1 mile round trip). If you have more time and are with kids – Riverwalk View and I wanted to do that. Read it was flat, you could even take a stroller – just under 2 miles and places kids can play in the Virgin River. I decided against it because it was stop 9 on shuttle (last one) so 40 minutes one way. Plus, at least a 30 min wait for shuttle and it was in mostly the sun with it being another 108 degree day.