10/5 Drive into Zion National Park

There are two ways to get into Zion National Park.  If you are driving a car or small truck or a motorhome shorter than 40' and less than 13' tall, you can take the east entrance through the Zion-Mt Carmel Tunnel.  It is incredibly scenic, as you will see from my photos, but a little scary because of the lack of shoulders, a lot of switchbacks at the end, and drop-offs in some areas.  There is also a $15 tunnel pass for larger vehicles because they have to stop traffic and let you drive directly through the middle of the two lanes in the tunnel.

If you don't meet those maximum size requirements, you can also take the south entrance from I-70 through Springdale.  It is a nice, mostly flat road, but not as scenic, and you will be missing a unique experience. 

Obviously, I much prefer the tunnel entrance, as you will see from my photos.  Here is a description of the tunnel from the Park Service website:  https://www.nps.gov/zion/planyourvisit/the-zion-mount-carmel-tunnel.htm

Visualize this whole area as being a series of sand dunes some millions of years in the ancient past.  You can easily see the patterns the sand made in the rocks.  In this mesa, the vertical cracks were caused by cracking during winters.

This drive, by the way, is about 2-3 miles long before the tunnel and a couple of miles long after the tunnel.

Needed to be careful not to scrape the side of my vehicle going around corners like the one in this photo.  There were lots of pull-offs, but most were too crowded for my motorhome.

Colors are amazing.

More colors.

You can really see the sand dunes here.

And here comes the line for the tunnel.  There is always a line because they stop traffic so often for RVs and motorhomes to go through in convoys so they can ride down the middle of the two lanes.

My motorhome is 12' tall, so if I were to drive in the normal right lane, the right corner of my roof would scrape the rock.  So, I have to drive straight through on the yellow lines in the middle.  It is not as easy as it sounds. 

 

 

I had my arm stuck out the window, but I am still driving very slowly on the yellow lines.  Speed limit is 25 MPH, but I drove a lot slower than that--maybe 15 MPH.  Luckily, no one was behind me, so I was almost stopped when I took these photos.

There are places in the 1.1 mile-long tunnel where sunlight from cutouts illuminates the roadway.

Whew! The end.

The next few photos are the outside of the tunnel in the Zion valley.  There are several levels of switchbacks, but there was no way for me to take photos of them.

Almost to the bottom.

 

 

I made my reservations for Site A11R in the Watchman Campground six months ago when the site opened.  The A loop sites are closest to the visitor center and are accessed by a raised paved path along the river.  The R stands for this being a river site, so it is only a few feet from the Virgin River.  Great location and worth getting up early in the morning to get one of the few prime sites.  Nice view on every side, by the way.  More photos on another day. 

Just at dusk, I saw this baby and took a photo from my windshield.  He was alone, but his mother and another fawn was close by.

Mom and the other baby.  This one stuck close to her, but she has a real problem with her wandering child, as he was always at least 60 feet away and not even visible to her!  (Reminds me of one of my kids.)  Good thing I have a clean windshield!  I often find it easier to take photos of wildlife from a window because you do not scare them off as easily. 

Got lots of work to do for my class, and tomorrow is housekeeping day, but I will go out exploring the next day.  I have been here more than once, and love this place, even if I just stay in the campsite.  This time I will be here for a total of 13 days, which is wonderful.