Zion National Park and Las Vegas, 21–28 April 2026
My cousins meet in Las Vegas a couple of times a year. Last year, Melody and I spent several days at Death Valley National Park beforehand. This year, we decided to spend time in Zion National Park before meeting with the cousins.
Tuesday, 21 April, Seattle to Zion
We had allowed plenty of time at the airport to go through security, but there was only one person in front of us. It took longer to go through bag drop.
People started boarding on time, but they didn’t call for anyone after first class. As it ends up, maintenance needed to work on the plane, and we left about 45 minutes late. We made up a little of the time in the air, though.
After arriving in Las Vegas, we picked up our car, then got groceries we would need for breakfast and lunch the next day. We then made our way through Arizona, then to Utah.
It was still daylight when we arrived in Springdale. We checked into our room, admired the view from the balcony, then unpacked, ate, and finalized plans for the next day.
Wednesday, 22 April, Zion Canyon
The plan for the day was to head to Scout Lookout, which takes you to the base of Angels Landing. It had been closed a couple of days earlier after someone had fallen off of Angels Landing. Coincidentally, Angels Landing itself was closed for maintenance the day we did the hike.
We weren’t sure how crowded the parking lot at the Visitor Center or the shuttle going through Zion Canyon would be, so we timed things to arrive well before the first shuttle. It wasn’t quite light by the time we arrived, but there were already a dozen or so people there. We easily got onto the first shuttle, but there were some people who had to wait for the second one, so arriving early worked in our favor.
Most of the people on the shuttle were in waterproof gear and carrying wooden hiking sticks, which meant they were heading to the end of the shuttle’s route to hike in the river at The Narrows. Our stop was a bit earlier, so we got off there, crossed the Virgin River, and started out.
There weren’t a whole lot of people on the West Rim Trail towards Scout Lookout, probably because Angels Landing wasn’t open. After following the Virgin River for a bit, we started a steep climb along switchbacks, then went through Refrigerator Canyon. While the previous switchbacks were steep, the next set (called Walter’s Wiggles) were even steeper and very short. Soon after that, we got to Scout Lookout, took a quick look, then continued a bit further on the West Rim Trail. We caught glimpses of Zion Canyon, and had great views of Angels Landing.
When we got back to the lookout, we took a closer look at the chains that people hold onto when they go up to the Angels Landing. Along the top, the trail is narrow with steep drop-offs on both sides. Since traffic is two-way, people need to negotiate passing each other while holding onto the chain.
Heading back down the switchbacks, we saw many people going up, which again made us happy that we started early. As we got close to the beginning of the trail, we saw a sign for Emerald Pools. We were planning on doing that hike another day, but after a bit of research, we thought we had enough energy to go to the pools. We would be able to catch the shuttle at the next stop, cutting off one whole segment of what would have been a loop.
There are three pools (Lower, Middle, Upper), and our route would take us to the Upper Pool first. The trail was relatively flat until we got to the cutoff for the Upper Pool, then it got steeper. When we arrived, we sat down to have some lunch, then went up to the pool to get a closer look.
When we almost got back to the main trail, we had a choice of going to see the Middle Pool or Lower Pool. Looking at the map, going to the Middle Pool would have added quite a bit of distance, so we opted for the Lower Pool. As it ended up, this was a good choice since we got to see a bunch of water falling from the Middle Pool down to the Lower Pool, and even got to walk behind those waterfalls.
We hopped on the shuttle which took us back to the Visitor Center, then headed back to Springdale. The first order of business was to get some ice cream, then we did some food shopping. Then it was back to the room to clean up, have dinner, and confirm our plan for the next day.
Thursday, 23 April, Kolob Canyon
Another early morning, but not quite so early. We went to the northwest corner of the park to Kolob Canyon. We were the second car in the parking lot, so we would have the trail almost all to ourselves.
The trail we were taking followed Taylor Creek and we crossed it at least a few dozen times in each direction. For the most part, it was pretty clear where to cross, but in other places, we looked at the options and picked one.
Early on, we got to a clearing and had an amazing view of Paria Point in the morning light. As we went further, more of Kolob Canyon’s walls became visible.
There were two abandoned cabins along the way, Larson Cabin and Fife Cabin. We were able to walk up and take a peek inside each of them.
As we got close to the end of the trail, a hiker was coming out; we assumed he was the other car we saw in the lot. Before long, we arrived at the Double Arch Alcove, which was one very large alcove and a smaller one next to it. The alcoves are huge, and you can see streaks where water drips down the walls.
Another group arrived as we were looking around the alcoves. We saw more hikers our way out, and at one point we figured the parking lot must be pretty full. Among the hikers, we saw a few groups of women in simple dresses, presumably LDS members.
Upon our return, the parking lot was completely full, and it seemed that people were good about not parking on the road (there were a few smaller expansion lots up and down the road, which were also filled). We continued along the road to the end, the Timber Creek Overlook.
Even though we were arriving in the late morning, there were plenty of spots in the parking lot. We grabbed our stuff and started heading to the overlook at the end of the trail.
When we got to the overlook, there was only one couple there. We looked around a bit, then found a place to sit under a tree with our lunch. We had a great view of the mountains across the canyon. Before heading back, we took another look around. We read that if it was clear enough, you would be able to see the north rim of the Grand Canyon. While it was clear around us, we saw cloud cover to the south, so we didn’t luck out.
For the afternoon, we tried a different store for ice cream, then headed to the Public Library to do some computing at a table (our room doesn’t have a table you can sit at). We were pleased that the network was extremely fast, which made it easy for me to post photos. After that, we grabbed some dinner, then went back to the room for the night.
Friday, 24 April, Zion Canyon
We had planned for this day to be a lighter day, with a couple of shorter hikes in the morning.
Once again we arrived at the Visitor Center early, but even though we were at the same time as on Wednesday, there were more people milling around the parking lot, and others were already starting a line for the tram. By the time the waiting area for the shuttle opened up, there were well over 100 people behind us, enough that the workers needed to start opening up some of the switchbacks so the line didn’t spill out towards the Visitor Center.
The mix of people in the line was different than Wednesday, when a large number of riders were headed to The Narrows. This time, not as many of those, but many who were going to go up Angels Landing, which was open after maintenance.
Our first hike of the day would be the Narrows Riverwalk, which starts at the last shuttle stop (Temple of Sinawava) and ends where you start walking in the Virgin River for The Narrows. There were several of us not planning on doing The Narrows, but most of the people were wearing waterproof overalls and carrying wooden hiking sticks.
When we got to the end of the walk, we could go into the river without getting wet, giving us a good view of what the beginning of The Narrows looked like. Along the way back, we were able to take side trails off the paved walkway to get other views of the river.
Once we were done, we got back onto the shuttle for a couple of stops. We walked the short trail up to the Weeping Rock, which is true to its name. It is undercut so much that there is a whole platform so people can walk underneath and look up to see water coming out of the rock. There was enough water that plants were growing out of the walls.
We rode the shuttle back to the Visitor Center, where the line for the shuttle was much shorter. The parking lot was completely full, and one circling car was grateful that we were leaving. Back at the room, we took the opportunity to do laundry and ate lunch in the room. Once that was done, we set out on foot to get ice cream once more, then walked to the library to get some more internet time. After that, we walked to the grocery store, then back to our room where we relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and evening.
Saturday, 25 April, East Zion
When we were looking for trails we would want to hike, one option was to go up to Observation Point from Weeping Rock. Unfortunately, the trail was closed due to falling rocks. However, there was the option of getting there via the East Mesa trail. Since we weren’t sure of the road condition, let alone if there would be parking, we signed up for a shuttle that started just outside the park, then dropped you off about a half mile from the trailhead. To get there, we needed to drive through Zion, so this was our first time seeing that part of the park. About halfway through is a tunnel, over a mile long, which has no lighting and just a few viewing ports which are far apart.
We got to the shuttle a bit early, but were able to get on an earlier shuttle, getting us to the trail a half an hour earlier than expected. While riding the shuttle, the road didn’t look too bad at the start. Towards the end, though, it had very deep ruts (up to a foot at some points). After being dropped off, we walked the rest of the way on the road to the trailhead. The lot wasn’t full, but there weren’t too many open spots. Once we got through the parking lot, we were at the trailhead.
Since the trail started along a mesa, it was only a slight incline. We then had to get off the mesa to Observation Point, so we went downhill quite a bit, then up a little more to the end of the trail. We had a great view of Zion Canyon, and could see Angels Landing right across from us. It was hard to see people over there, however.
We started heading back, and looking at the timing, we would either just make one of the shuttles (they left every half an hour) or just miss it. When we got close to the pick-up location, we saw a group of hikers coming the other way, so we figured they just got dropped off. We sat on a bench and ate lunch while we waited. Indeed, a half an hour later, the shuttle came and took us back.
The drive back through Zion was very different than the one in the morning. There was a line of about a dozen cars for the east entrance. It seemed to be moving along, but then stopped for several minutes. A couple of dozen more cars joined the line, and once the line started moving again, it went faster than before. The woman at the gate was glancing at passes so people barely had to stop before being let through.
We were thinking about going to a canyon viewpoint along the way, and figured it would be very popular. On the way out, we saw where the main parking lot was, as well as several other small lots along the side of the road. On the way back, we saw the first few were full, then traffic came to a stop, long enough that a woman in the car in front of us ran out, went to the bathroom, and made it back before we started moving again. While we could understand that perhaps they were only letting cars through the tunnel in one direction at a time, the traffic going the other way (after exiting) was also stopped. We figured people were trying to turn left to get to some of the small parking lots. Needless to say, we punted on going to the viewpoint, and eventually got through the tunnel.
Before we got back to the room, we stopped one last time for ice cream. After relaxing for a bit in our room, we walked to dinner and then did final planning for the drive back to Las Vegas.
Sunday, 26 April, Zion to Las Vegas via Snow Canyon State Park
Another travel day. We were planning on picking up a breakfast voucher for a nearby restaurant from the front desk while checking out, but it looked like the office would be opening late. We decided to eat our picnic lunch on the road for breakfast and would find lunch later on.
Since we had several hours of extra time before we needed to be in Las Vegas, we made a slight detour to Snow Canyon State Park. The ranger at the entrance said that if we see any desert turtles on the road, we were welcome to pick them up and move them off the road.
We had arrived at the south entrance and were going to drive north for our stops. The ranger recommended that we be sure to drive south through the canyon to take advantage of the views. Since we weren’t sure if it was going to rain, we decided to do our stops on the way north, then turn around to drive south.
Our first stop was Jenny’s Canyon. From the road, you see a wall of rock, but only after you hike up to the rock can you see a small canyon tucked between some walls. The canyon was short but still fun to walk through.
The second stop was Petrified Dunes, which were sandstone formations that looked like sand dunes. We planned on following the trail that was on our map, but since we were walking on rocks, we checked pretty often to make sure we were still on track. At some point, we started seeing markers with arrows on them, pointing (for the most part) to the next marker. We eventually got to a part where no matter where we looked, we would need to scramble down and back up, so we decided to turn around since we didn’t want to try to go up if it started raining.
The last stop we made was a trail which featured lava tubes. The first of two entrances was pretty tight and had a drop of several feet. I thought I could get in fine, but wasn’t sure how long it would take me to get out, so we proceeded to the second entrance. That one was much easier to get in, although we left our hiking sticks at the top so we could do some scrambling. We were able to get far enough in that we needed flashlights to see what we were doing. As we were working our way out, another group of people was going in.
The rest of the hike took us down into a valley and gave us great views all around. The return to the car involved climbing back out of the valley but went pretty quickly.
We proceeded to the far north of the scenic road, turned around, and watched the sights as we went along, eventually leaving the park.
We got lunch in nearby St. George at a restaurant which (unknown to us when we picked the place) originated as a food truck in Seattle. We were wondering why there was a Seattle Dog, lots of Pacific Northwest-themed dishes, and even one which referenced Puyallup.
We pulled into Las Vegas, dropped off the car, and checked into our room. We had a bit of time before meeting the cousins for dinner, which was a nice opportunity to relax. When the time came, we went across the street and found the group in the restaurant. It was a pizza joint, and we had seen earlier that the smallest pizzas looked too big for the two of us, but it seemed we would be able to split a pasta. After everyone had finished eating, there was enough leftover pizza to fill four boxes.
After dinner, we went across the street with Robert and Holly so we could start planning a cousins' retreat in Denver for 2027. Of course, we spent a lot of the time catching up on things, which was a great way to spend time together.
Monday, 27 April, Las Vegas
The day started with us gathering for breakfast. After that, most of the cousins went off to gamble, while we decided to go to Springs Preserve, the site of the original desert springs for Las Vegas. It had several attractions, and we concentrated on a few of them.
Our first destination was the butterfly exhibit. They were extremely active, much to the delight of the kids around us. Most of them would flit around, then land and drink nectar for a bit. There was one butterfly, however, which never stopped flapping, even while feeding.
Exiting the butterfly exhibit, we wandered through the botanical gardens. After going through the teaching and cactus gardens, we realized it was starting to get close to lunchtime, so we headed to the café to get something to eat. It was good timing, since it was starting to fill up by the time we left.
After lunch, we went to the inside exhibits, including an indoor flash flood demonstration (we got splashed during the peak). We finished up in the Nevada State Museum, which contained a lot of historic artifacts, fossils, and a photography exhibit.
We hopped onto the bus, got off, and walked a bit to the Arts District to hang out at a café for a bit.
Everyone gathered for dinner, with a lot of chatting and sharing of meals. People lingered for a while, but it was eventually time to head back to our room.
Tuesday, 28 April, Las Vegas to Seattle
Our last travel day. The cousins once again met for breakfast, after which we lingered as we said our goodbyes.
We had a bit of time before we needed to catch the bus to the airport. We then double-checked that we had everything, then headed to the bus stop. There was quite a bit of room, which gave us room for our luggage.
I dropped off the bag, then after security, we grabbed some lunch. The flight was a bit late, but they made up a bunch of time in the air. We had no third person in our row, which was convenient.
It was mostly cloudy on the flight up, but we did get peeks of Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier, which is always like a welcome home.
