On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
frosty
Zion Nation Park: Southern Utah. We were based in St George UT.
We had a little change of plan after Great Basin. We were going to take a couple of days to get to Valley of Fire State Park near Las Vegas, stopping at Cathedral Gorge SP on the way. However, the trailer needed a little work so we decided to go to St. George, Utah instead and have a mobile RV tech come look at it. With a couple of afternoons free in St. George we decided to see Zion National Park again.
Zion Canyon is one of the most crowded areas in the whole park system. Cars aren’t allowed, visitors take a shuttle bus which requires online advanced ticket purchase, which we didn’t have, so that was out. Instead, we went to a less-traveled part of the park, the Kolob Canyons.
My Fodor’s guide to Western National Parks says “Though there’s little evidence of Kolob’s beauty from the entrance point of Interstate 15, once you negotiate the first switchback on the park road, you are hit with a vision of red rock cliffs shooting out of the earth.” This picture was taken at that point. We both gasped as we made the turn.
Farther up the road.
A view into the canyon.
We were struck by how green the area was. It looks to be spring here, and there was a beautiful contrast between the vegetation and the red rock formations.
Timber Top Mountain, with a hanging valley in the middle. The black streaks below are a clue that water flows there.
We hiked the Timber Creek Overlook Trail that starts at the end of the road.
View from the end of the trail. Zion Canyon cuts through the plateau in the middle of the picture.
Rock squirrel (I think) gathering twigs.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I can see why they made Zion Park a setting in Fallout New Vegas, looks quite lovely.
And “Kolob Canyon” what a Mormon name lol
YY_Sima Qian
I love Zion! The view from Angel’s Landing is incredible, & the trail to get there heart stopping!
Wag
Zion is an incredible place, and the Kolob section is a well kept secret. Thanks for sharing your photos!
pb3550
The sky/earth/plantlife contrasts in your pics are beautiful. Love the squirrel at the end. The landscape also brought up distant memories of meeting my first rattlesnake on a trail in Zion – exciting event that gave me enough adrenaline to run up the next mile of trail.
Betty
Dramatic landscape. What a nice surprise for you.
Mary G
Beautiful, all of them.
arrieve
Beautiful pictures. It’s going on the list.
Traveller
Is there any flowing water at the bottom of Kolob Canyon? What is always nice about Zion NP is that there is usually somewhere around near you, flowing water, generally the Virgin River but feeders also.
I’ve always had good luck in Zion, but others have recommended Kolob, so I was just curious if there is some stream or something?
There must be to have cut the canyon, no?
Thanks, Best Wishes, Traveller
frosty
@Traveller: There probably is a river/creek at the bottom but I didn’t see it. Unlike Zion the road is mostly near the top pf the canyon not the bottom, so it would be a bit of a hike to get there.
stinger
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Love the squirrel!
Gary
You no longer have to reserve or buy a ticket for the main canyon shuttle.
LaVerkin Creek runs through the Kolob area.
TriassicSands
@Traveller:
I’ve hiked deep into the Kolob canyons and, yes, there is a main stream as well as smaller ones — not as big as the Virgin River in Zion Canyon.
JustRuss
What a beautiful place, thanks for sharing.
Hawes
Zion is the crown jewel of the NPS. Sorry, Yellowstone, but you just try too hard.
way2blue
Beautiful! We visited Zion when I was a kid. My day spent a lot of time flying (Pan American) so most vacations were visiting nat’l parks in western states & western Canada by car. We didn’t do much hiking though. Zion is definitely worth another visit…