Zion National Park

Checkerboard mesa

After Bryce Canyon, we were prepared to be underwhelmed. But the eastern entrance to Zion was a drive through towering sandstone formations with incredible layered patterns formed by petrified sand dunes.

After driving through these formations, we took a fairly steep descent down into a beautiful valley, with a river in the bottom, and the rock formations towering overhead as much as 2000 feet above.

We took a strenuous hike, climbing up 1000 feet.

The trail continued, but it looked like this, with 1000 foot drops on both sides. One of us continued up a little farther, but came back when the chain stopped and it was tilted rock with no chain and a drop.

Here is a picture of the road and a bus from that height.

The chain section

While it's mostly desert, a spring seeping out of the rock supported maidenhair ferns and these columbines.

Zion draws world class rock climbers - there are three in this photo.

Here is a closeup of the last picture.

Even though the signs said "Do Not Feed", the chipmonks were TOO tame - that's my toe at the bottom of the pic.