Zion National Park, in southern Utah, is probably one of our favorite National Parks. The Virgin River cuts through the red canyon rocks and the lush, green of the valley floor gives way to burnished colorful cliffs, crags, and buttes.
The highlight was definitely a hike called Angel’s Landing. Scary as anything (no pets allowed!!) but definitely an accomplishment you will remember all your life.
There are many picturesque roads that weave through the Park delivering fascinating views with every meander. The Kolob Reservoir Road crosses the high country and livestock grazing meadows and eventually arrives at the Kolb Reservoir which is particularly striking in the winter when ice and Aspen create universal Christmas appeal.
Towards the middle of the 1800s Mormon farmers from the Salt Lake area were the first people of European descent to settle in the area along the Virgin River. The Mormon settlers named the area Kolob—in Mormon scripture, the heavenly place nearest the residence of God.
We spent the festive season there and stayed in a cabin we rented on www.vrbo.com. There are many accommodation options between Zion and Bryce National Parks and if you go to one you must go to the other. They are unique and awesome and totally spectacular.
We visited Bryce Canyon National Park at Christmas time and were blessed with a dusting of snow on the giant, natural amphitheaters that characterize the park.
At 8000-9000 feet Bryce is at a much higher elevation than Zion. Bryce is distinctive due to geological structures called Hoodoos formed by frost weathering and stream erosion of the river and lake sedimentary rocks. Considered by the first European settler, the Scot, Ebenezer Bryce, as “a helluva place to lose a cow”.
