Zion National Park In Winter, The Long-ish Way Around

Yesterday morning was an odd one for me. I slept like absolute dog crap thanks to the constant gale blowing against the exterior of a really old hotel and the window was wheezing all night long. I woke up constantly and despite my watch saying I was awake 2 minutes total it was more like 40+ minutes. That made getting on the road a bit more imperative to me. The sooner we got to Zion the better. We went to Costco to try for gas but the line was insane so we went up the street and got gas with no line at a Chevron. Soon we were blasting north on the 15 and past 6 MASSIVE solar installations to the west of the freeway.

After R puked we stopped at a truck stop and got us all food, me truckstop coffee, and some walking around before bombing north again. The Virgin River Gorge is crazy that they built the 15 through it. The walls are so steep and the canyon so narrow.

Before too long we found ourselves getting gas in Mesquite then on to Hurricane and then to the park.

It took a bit to get in the entrance and we went straight to the visitor center to stamp our National Parks passports and pickup a few items. The canyon floor had between an inch at the entrance up to 4+ inches at the top of the canyon drive. We found out that the park had a couple of their snowplows break down which is why the east entrance was not getting plowed. The hope is that it will be open this morning.

Zion in winter is a whole different experience from the non-snowy Zion. There was not a ton that we could do as we were not prepared for deep snow hiking. That left us to drive the canyon drive and check out the walls shrouded in clouds, snow, and ice.

The weeping rock is actually frozen tears this time of year. I remember walking beneath it 35ish years ago in the summer while it flowed liquid tears.

I saw a slew of climbs all along the canyon. It was incredible to see the splitter cracks running up the walls of sandstone.

The Great White Throne lived up to its name as it was well coated in a extensive sheet of ice.

One of the good things about the winter visit is that we were able to drive all the way up the canyon to the Temple of Sinawava at the turn around. If we would have brought snow shoes we could have hiked up the canyon but the 4 to 6" of snow made that a no-go.

We headed to the Zion Canyon Brewpub for food and libations. Good beer and good food, I had a salad again as I MUST HAVE greens and protein, all the carbs are jacking with me. R is in full on coloring mode now and is getting rather good at staying in the lines. First thing he wants is something to color with.

Since the east entrance was closed we had to go back to Hurricane then down and around to the 89 to go up to Mt Carmel Junction and our hotel.

The drive around was wild as we went through full on blizzard conditions before getting to Colorado City where the snow suddenly quit. We took the cutoff past the Coral Pink Sand Dunes which where barely visible beneath the snow cover. We finally made it to the Thunderbird Hotel which I stayed at over 35 years ago. It was dumping snow as we unloaded the truck to our room.

We have a really nice room that looks right out at the working outdoor hot tub. We chose not to go in as we would have a bit of a walk back to the room in the nice cold snow.

Being the desert the storms come in waves and this was no different. There is so much terrain to the south where the storm is coming from that it broke up the storm into bands that were seriously heavy at times. Then it would transition to clear skies for a while between.

The Thunderbird has been around for many years. This is their story.

Next to the story is this massive spoon on the wall. All we could do was repeat, "MY SPOON IS TOO BIG!!!!"

Despite not being super hungry we still went to eat at the restaurant since they were open till 8pm. While eating we watched the plows come by on the highway a few times and it just kept on snowing.

Today we go back to Las Vegas to go to the Bodies exhibit, then see BATTLEBOTS!!!!!!, then we want to go watch the Bellagio water show which is right across the strip from our hotel. The only thing to worry about is getting ourselves down from a mile high and all this snow back to the desert and the insanity of the strip with about 6 inches of snow that fell overnight.