153: Zion National Park Trip Report

Exploring the National Parks

In this episode, hosts Ash and John share their recent three-day trip to Zion National Park during peak summer heat, explaining why they cho

Key takeaways

• Visiting Zion in summer is challenging but valuable for accurate trip planning due to peak crowds and heat.
• Understanding both the Zion Canyon Shuttle and Springdale shuttle systems prevents major logistical frustrations.

Main topics

• Summer visit to Zion National Park
• Zion Canyon Shuttle system

Notable quotes

We're going to Zion during the summer to make sure that we can help you plan your trip to the best that we can.

Conclusion

The hosts emphasize that despite the challenges of visiting Zion in summer,

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) So all growing up, I grew up in a house that had pets. And we had dogs, and we had rabbits, and we had fish, and we had all, I had a newt once. Oh, I didn't Speaker 2 (0:14) know that. It Speaker 1 (0:15) was pretty cool. Found it dried up in my closet. Speaker 2 (0:19) Oh. Speaker 1 (0:21) Kind of escaped. Anyways, but my whole marriage married to Ash. I... haven't been able to have pets because Ash is allergic to animals. Well... Speaker 2 (0:33) I know that's like... Do you know when I read in books and sometimes they'll be like, oh, you can never trust a person who doesn't like animals. And I'm like, that's not true. Some of us just sneeze a lot and our throats close up when we're near them and we don't like being near them because of that. Speaker 1 (0:55) Right. Exactly. I know. It's very true. You can always tell who the villain is if they kick a dog. Speaker 2 (1:02) Yeah. It's not a character flaw, but it always seems to be. Anyway, I had to defend myself there for a minute. Speaker 1 (1:09) Yes. I think it's very, very worthwhile defending people with allergies because it's a real problem. But I still love animals. I just don't live with one. And the other day... Ash bought me a pet. I did. I'm so excited about it. Speaker 2 (1:27) And it's a pet I love too. This is the Exploring the National Parks podcast with Dirt in My Shoes. My name is Ash and I'm a former park ranger and the founder of Dirt in My Shoes. I think that the parks are best seen from the trail and I'm here to make national park trip planning easy. And Speaker 1 (1:45) I'm John. I carry the kids on the trails, I tell stories, and notice all the things that Ash doesn't care about much, like birds. Speaker 2 (1:53) Join us as we show you around America's spectacular national parks. We're Speaker 1 (1:58) sharing our favorite places, fun facts, adventures, and misadventures. And Speaker 2 (2:02) we'll even throw in a little trip planning. Speaker 1 (2:04) Let's start exploring. It's a great pet. And we all just talk so lovingly to it. And it's such a sweet little pet. Ash bought me a Roomba. Speaker 1 (2:24) And it's just the cutest little thing that just wanders across the floor all the time. I Speaker 2 (2:28) know. And I was just saying today, I was like, I love this pet. Like it has its own little docking station where it cleans itself and empties, you know, all the dirt into it by itself. And I told John, I was like. This is my kind of pet. This is one that cleans up messes instead of making them. Speaker 1 (2:48) Exactly. And Speaker 2 (2:49) it's just cute and it just like putters around the house and cleans. It's Speaker 1 (2:53) way better than those like Tamagotchis and things that we had growing up. What was the other version? The Giga Speaker 2 (3:01) Pet. The Speaker 1 (3:02) Giga Pet. Yes. You actually had to clean up after those ones. Right. Speaker 2 (3:06) I know. This one. Speaker 1 (3:08) Does it for us. Speaker 2 (3:09) I mean, it did go a little bit crazy the other day and it was supposed to be in our living room mopping. And I found it in the boy's bathroom, just like spinning in circles. I was like, oh, cute little thing. It's confused. How do we reset this? Speaker 1 (3:27) Ash and I have spoken about this. If we ever did get like a real dog, it would need to be really well trained and be an outside dog. Who knew that Ash would be the one training my new pet? She's just like training, following it around in each room, teaching it things. Speaker 2 (3:47) Oh, the other day, me and the kids were just sitting at the dining room table watching it for probably like an hour. Speaker 1 (3:54) Just Speaker 2 (3:54) like, oh, look, mom, look, yeah, I moved into that spot it missed. Speaker 1 (3:59) We were so like proud parents. It did. It learned. We're Speaker 2 (4:03) probably the last people to get one, but we finally bit the bullet and did it. Speaker 1 (4:08) It's so funny. I'm Speaker 2 (4:09) one of those people who's like, I don't want machines to like replace everything. that we do. And so like, I still mow my own lawn. I don't have a riding lawn mower. I don't have a snowblower. Speaker 1 (4:22) I Speaker 2 (4:22) still, I like to shovel the driveway of snow, like manually. I'm kind of weird like that. So I feel like this was a big step for me. It's just because we bought a new house and the house is a lot bigger than our old one. And I don't have hours a day to clean. I'm trying to run a business here. Speaker 2 (4:43) So I did kind of bite the bullet on that one. But who knew that it would feel like a pet? It's so fun. Speaker 1 (4:49) It's so much fun. But I was just thinking about when we were sitting around the table watching this thing wander across the floor. I was like, I remember I did a family history thing with my grandparents several years ago where I sat them down and I recorded them and asked them a bunch of questions. And I remember asking them, do you remember when you got your first microwave or your first? refrigerator because these are really old grandparents and they're like it was an icebox just with a you know anyways they described everything and i remember when we got our first home computer and now my kids are going to remember when they got their first robot pet yes Speaker 2 (5:24) so funny so that's the going ons in our house right now um But today's episode, honestly, we travel a lot during the summer. We're in the national parks a lot. And so that's also what's been going on with us. Yeah. Speaker 1 (5:41) We Speaker 2 (5:42) have been visiting the national parks as many as we can get to. We are in the parks all the time, honestly. I mean, that's one thing that's really cool about Dirt in My Shoes is everything is updated. Like all the time because we're always out there doing stuff. And Speaker 1 (6:01) we notice things when they change. And that's one of the reasons why we do go is so that we can verify and double check things. And we noticed a few things on this trip, which was really fun. Speaker 2 (6:12) We did. Yeah. So we went to Zion National Park. We are Utah natives. So we do find ourselves in Zion fairly often. But I will say we try not to visit Zion too much during the summer. because Ash, myself, gets very, very grumpy in the heat. Speaker 1 (6:33) Oh, Ash, no, no. Of course, definitely not. Speaker 2 (6:37) So this episode is about our recent trip. We did visit Zion in the middle of the summer, in the middle of the crowds, in the middle of the heat, all the things, because most people do go to Zion during this time. Yeah. Why? I don't know. I will never figure out why people do that to themselves. Speaker 1 (6:58) But Speaker 2 (6:59) I just want to prove to you that I am taking one for the team here. And we're going to Zion during the summer to make sure that we can help you plan your trip to the best that we can. Speaker 1 (7:12) So Speaker 2 (7:13) that's what this was. And it was a quick trip again because we're... So it's easy for us to pop down there when we want to. Right. Speaker 1 (7:22) And Speaker 2 (7:22) also it was 105 degrees every day. Oh, Speaker 1 (7:25) easily. So I did not want to Speaker 2 (7:27) be there more than, you know, a couple days. Speaker 1 (7:32) It's been a, sometimes you forget things if you haven't been there for a while. And we haven't been to a place that hot on purpose generally because we can kind of travel where we want. We follow the cooler temperatures sometimes during the summers. But also, I used to travel around the Southwest with little tiny water guns on every trail so I could spray my wife and my children when they were getting a little bit overheated and grumpy. And I did not bring my water guns this trip, and it was a mistake. I Speaker 2 (8:03) don't know how we overlooked that. So anyway, we were in Zion for, it was three days. um middle of the summer middle of the heat we did notice some changes some new things and we'll talk about those here in a minute but um you know mostly we're going to make sure that the zion itinerary is up to date that it is functioning that the times listed in there are working for people all of that and so if you are going to zion go grab our Zion itinerary because it is really, really good and it will help you navigate through Zion. We verify that. It's Speaker 1 (8:45) so much fun. I love going to the busiest places on earth and finding solitude because that's one thing that this itinerary does well. And it's just, it's amazing. It's like stepping. into Narnia sometimes. It's great. Speaker 2 (8:59) Well, and Zion is truly very, very, very busy. It is one of those parks that just, it's not very big. First of all, there's very few places that you can drive to yourself. You have to take a shuttle through lots of it. And it just like everybody is kind of just condensed into just these. sections there's these small sections of this park right Speaker 1 (9:28) and Speaker 2 (9:28) so not only does it get millions of visitors a year I mean it is like generally in the top five most visited national parks anyway yeah Speaker 1 (9:37) but Speaker 2 (9:37) it's small right Speaker 1 (9:39) so Speaker 2 (9:39) it feels extra busy it's Speaker 1 (9:42) like fitting everybody that goes to Yellowstone into a studio apartment it's crazy there's major bottlenecks and everything and so entrance lines were still crazy parking was still crazy oh the morning shuttle lines were still crazy yeah Speaker 2 (9:59) you're right and I will say although a lot of people visit Zion during the summer if you can I truly think fall is way better Speaker 1 (10:09) um Speaker 2 (10:10) we really like late October after Utah's fall break When the schools get out for fall break, don't go during then. That's not a good time. Speaker 1 (10:20) Yes. It's pretty much crazy then. But Speaker 2 (10:22) like kind of like in between like Labor Day and like Thanksgiving, the weather is still really good. You can still pretty much do everything. Right. Speaker 1 (10:31) And Speaker 2 (10:31) the temperatures are just a little bit nicer for being out and hiking. Exactly. Speaker 1 (10:38) Exactly. Okay. Speaker 2 (10:39) Let's jump in though. These are six things that we've noticed on our most recent trip to Zion. And the first one was so, so funny. Speaker 1 (10:48) It really was. I love signs so much, like literal billboard signs. And when we were driving into Springdale, they had an electronic billboard that was malfunctioning slightly. Only in one specific word and only two letters. And it was just enough to be hilarious because when we were driving in to Springdale, you know, we were coming in around check-in time for our hotel. And it was so funny because we were expecting to see crowding. We were expecting traffic, parking to be a little bit crazy. Well, Speaker 2 (11:27) Springdale is the busiest gateway entrance to the park. Right. It always is kind of crazy. Right. Speaker 1 (11:33) You Speaker 2 (11:33) just go into it expecting to... have a hard time finding parking or, you know, to kind of get stuck behind a line of cars. So that's just the expectation. Right. Speaker 1 (11:44) Exactly. But the sign was meant to be like a public announcement type of sign. And so Speaker 2 (11:52) to help Speaker 1 (11:52) people understand what they were about, what to expect, kind of things like that. And the sign said Zion parking. And I don't even know what the third word. Full. It was supposed Speaker 2 (12:03) to say Zion parking full. Speaker 1 (12:05) Right. Which Speaker 2 (12:06) is good to know if you're coming into the park too late to know that you can't park in Zion. Right. Speaker 1 (12:12) You Speaker 2 (12:12) have to park in Springdale and either walk or take the shuttle into Zion. So that's the purpose of that sign. Well, Speaker 1 (12:20) the double L's on full were totally. Speaker 2 (12:24) They were locked out. It Speaker 1 (12:26) was like the screen was just malfunctioning just during the double L's. So it was just like Zion parking F you. Speaker 2 (12:35) We had such a good laugh. We're like, that's the truth. Zion's sticking its middle finger up at you as you're driving in saying, F you, you're not finding parking here. If Speaker 1 (12:47) you're coming in at this time of day expecting parking, I've got a message just for you. Speaker 1 (12:55) Both Ash and I just totally lost it. We were like, what was that sign supposed to say? Then we figured it out. Zion Speaker 2 (13:02) parking, F you. I feel like that's just the theme of Zion Speaker 1 (13:08) during Speaker 2 (13:09) the busy season. It Speaker 1 (13:10) is. It is. Because if you can't get parking early enough, you're not getting parking. Speaker 2 (13:16) Yeah. And I will say, we did notice some things regarding this that have just changed over the years as the park really has just gotten busier. And so I am going to make adjustments to the Zion itinerary for some of the things that we saw this time around. Speaker 1 (13:35) Because Speaker 2 (13:36) the parking lot, like the parking situation is so crazy. It's almost just, it's not even enough to go early. anymore because there's not that much parking and there's millions of people trying to get in and this leads to number two the number two thing we noticed because basically the best thing that you can do for your trip to zion is to really understand how the park shuttle works because that's gonna help you kind of determine like do we want to try to find parking in the park or are we just gonna park in Springdale and leave our car at our hotel and take the Springdale shuttle to Zion you know like there's there's different moving pieces of just even getting into the park Speaker 1 (14:23) to Speaker 2 (14:24) even start having adventures right Speaker 1 (14:26) and Speaker 2 (14:27) there's so many good adventures to be had so it's worth it but it's It's getting harder and harder to like not want to pull your hair out as you're trying to get into the park just to start your day. Right. Speaker 1 (14:41) The strategy piece sometimes can be a really big part of the plan. I Speaker 2 (14:45) think for Zion, it's almost like I can't really think of a park besides maybe like Glacier that the strategy piece of all the little things that fit together. to make your trip better than everybody else's like are so critical to your enjoyment of the park and if one thing kind of goes awry in zion in your plan to get parking or your plan to take the shuttle or whatever it can kind of domino effect your whole day oh Speaker 1 (15:19) absolutely where Speaker 2 (15:20) you're just you're stuck in the crowds here and then you're stuck in the crowds here and then you can't get parking here and then you're stuck in the crowds here and Zion more than almost any other park. I really, I can't think of another one that's like, it's so crucial that you know what you're doing when you come to this park or you will just be like, there's a million people everywhere. And Speaker 1 (15:44) I can't get on anything. And there's just lines. Ooh, line. Ooh, great. Another line. Love it. Speaker 2 (15:52) Oh, good. We get to see it sit in the entrance line. Speaker 1 (15:56) How far are we from being underneath that shade structure for this line? Oh, on the end of their half an hour? Okay, great. Speaker 2 (16:04) And also, I think going into it, expecting some lines. Because even we waited in line. Speaker 1 (16:10) Right. And Speaker 2 (16:11) that's just normal, too. Speaker 1 (16:13) But Speaker 2 (16:13) if you can get ahead of it enough, then you don't feel like it's all day. Then it's just like at one spot, you're sitting in line for a minute, and then you're done for the rest of the day. Speaker 2 (16:27) So going on to number two then is that we really do love the Zion shuttle. Oh Speaker 1 (16:35) yeah. And Speaker 2 (16:36) using the Zion shuttle this past trip again, and just, you know, noticing new things this time and stuff like that. Both of us, John and I both were like, this is the. best shuttle in the NPS. Oh, Speaker 1 (16:50) it's not even close. And when you think of the strategy piece, if you can use the Zion shuttle strategically and have it be a big part, it will be like the magic bullet in some ways to making your trip awesome. Speaker 2 (17:07) Yeah. It's just, just understanding how the shuttle works and kind of making, you're even like making like your lodging plans. around kind of how the shuttle works and where you want to be in regards to being able to catch the shuttle. So yeah, Zion has a great shuttle system though. It's like,