Zion National Park

We moved on to Zion and parked 5 miles east of Virgin, UT at a little piece of BLM land along the Virgin River, just west of MM 24 on Hwy 9. I talked Barbara and Ron into doing a hike I’ve wanted to do for a while. It involved hiking 5 miles one-way from the top of a ridge, dropping 2000 feet down through Echo Canyon to the valley from an obscure trailhead on the east boundary of the park. Since Randy had a sore foot, we had ourselves a shuttle-man!

The first part of the hike was level, through a forest of pinyon and juniper with a few ponderosa pines. Then came the hard descent down into Echo Canyon. This part was steep and rocky. The prettiest part was probably going down through Echo Canyon, not too steep, meandering through a narrow crevice and some very pretty rock formations. The last part was a lot of switchbacks down to the valley floor and the park bus that took us back to the visitors center and our "shuttle-man."

Although 5 miles of downhill sounds easy, it’s hard on your knees! But it beats climbing and I was glad I did it.