Mileage: 68,636

Sheeps Bridge Road BLM Dispersed Camping Virgin, Utah

Thank you Cedar City Jeep for repairing the axle seals! We were on our way out of town at 10 am!

Interstate 15 is also a scenic byway.

All of the private campgrounds near Zion were completely booked. One woman I spoke with suggested Sheeps Bridge Road BLM – dispersed camping.

Another free and spectacular campsite!

With our picnic packed, we headed to the park.

Zion is gorgeous, with dramatic cliffs and tall canyon walls. This park is different than the other canyons we have seen. In this park, you are in the canyon instead of seeing it from above.

It was such a pretty day and the canyon walls were so far above us, we decided to stop and take the top off the Jeep.

Initially, we decided to drive Highway 9 through the park and through the tunnel. There is a tunnel 1.1 miles long that connects the east and west portions of the park. If we had come with the RV, we would have had to pay a fee to use the tunnel. Apparently, there were a lot of accidents with RVs in the tunnel. Now, rangers control traffic so that the flow is only going one way. This allows larger vehicles to pass through more safely. On our way to the tunnel, we passed Linda and Dominik on their bikes heading in the opposite direction!

There were lots of Model T Fords on the road in Zion today!

Lunch spot.

Checkerboard Mesa.

Enjoying the ride…

Zion National Park receives 6.4 million visitors a year. For this reason, the park has implemented a mandatory shuttle system. If you want to see the scenic drive, you park in the parking lot at the visitor center and you get on the free shuttle.

The shuttle is NOT a good way to see this park. Ideally, you would stop at each of the 9 overlooks and get out and walk or hike to see the sights. We started so late in the day, that we decided to ride to the end and do the Riverside Walk.

There were so so many people walking on the paved path…we found our way down to the river’s edge to walk…and there we were happy. There we could truly take the time to look in awe and wonder at the steep canyon walls, the Virgin River running through, the glorious colors, and the signs of nature. The Paiute Indians made this place their home. They called it “Straight Up Land.” The Virgin River doesn’t look like much but over millions of years, this river has carved through 7 layers of sedimentary rock or 2,000 feet of sandstone. The river carries 1,000,000 tons of sediment every year. Most of the washing occurs during flash floods in the monsoon season.

On our way out of the park, at stop number 8, there was a California condor perched on a ledge about halfway up the cliff. There are only 400 of these magnificent birds in the whole world. They are North America’s largest land bird. The condors have a nest in Zion National Park…and we got to see it!

It was dinner time by the time we took the shuttle back to the parking lot and then drove to Sheeps Bridge Road…home for the night.