Zion River Resort RV Park & Campground – Zion UT

Zion River Resort RV Park & Campground – Zion UT

When traveling to a national park, it is difficult not to be in awe when you see it for the first time and Zion was no exception. If I were to compare Zion to another national park, I would say it ranks up there with Yosemite in terms of its size, scale and challenging hikes.  Whether you are viewing the valley from Angels Landing or hiking the Narrows it is hard not to feel small and insignificant among this massive landscape.  Our time there was short and we made the most of every moment.

Similar to our visit to Bryce, we stayed at an RV camp conveniently located about 20 minutes outside the park.  Zion River Resort RV Park and Campground is triangular in shape with 9 E/W 500N on one side and the Virgin River and the North Creek on the other two. The campground is very well kept with plush green grass and several trees providing ample shade.  There are three dog runs in the northeast corner of the campground that Sato thoroughly enjoyed.  The staff were all super helpful and gave us a wealth of information about the park and hikes to explore. And of course it’s always nice when the bathrooms / showers are private rooms which was the case here – I guess this is where the “resort” part of the name comes into play – or perhaps it’s because they have a hot tub and pool too.  This was the first time on our trip where we had experienced timed showers. On the wall next to the shower there is a timer, you press the button and the countdown begins. You are then given 8 minutes to complete your shower which gave both of us a little anxiety as we didn’t want to run out of water before fully rinsing off! I found myself racing against the clock like there was a competition between the soap and the water to see which one would prevail. To add to the anxiety, there is a 15-minute delay before the timer resets and water can be turned on again, so it was a mad dash to lather up and rinse off as quickly as possible.  In a time where it seems like the entire world is in a drought it is certainly a great water saving technique.  Needless to say, we both finished our first showers with 3 minutes left to spare.  It wasn’t until the second go around that I realized I didn’t have to count one Mississippi, two Mississippi four hundred and eighty times.  That beeping I was hearing was the timer kindly letting me know that a minute has passed so all I had to do to make sure I didn’t end up with a soapy head of hair was to strategically make my way through my showering routine before that 8^th dreaded beep!  I quickly came to realize that 8 minutes is plenty of time to take a shower, so after each experience I felt I was saving water and the planet at the same time 😉.

Hiking the Narrows! We heard so much about hiking the Narrows that we had to make this our initial experience at Zion but first we had to drop off Sato at day care.  We took him to On the Spot Play and Stay which is an awesome facility in the town of Hurricane. It was in the opposite direction of Zion but totally worth it.  They charge by the hour and they also have a dog wash station which we ended up using – it wasn’t timed like our showers and he totally needed it! When we arrived at Zion national park, there was no parking left within the park which meant we wouldn’t be able to use our handy national parks pass that my daughters gave us for Christmas.  There was also zero parking at the visitor’s center so we ended up taking a spot along the road that cost us $20 for the day. If you are planning a visit to Zion, note that you’ve got to get there early for the free parking.  This wasn’t in the cards for us as the earliest we could drop off Sato was 8am.

When we arrived at the visitor’s center, we signed waivers at the kiosk then rented our gear which consisted of waiters, neoprene socks, hiking boots and a sturdy wooden walking stick to keep our balance in the water.  We looked pretty silly in our new outfits but it was comforting to see several other people looking just as nerdy as we did.

It turns out that we probably could have gotten by with just renting the neoprene socks and boots as we noticed several hikers on the trail without all the rental garb.  The water was very cold though so we were thankful in the end that we rented the equipment ($61.58 each).  To get to the trail, we entered the park by foot (we did get to use our national parks pass to get into the park which saved us an entrance fee!) and made our way to the shuttle busses.  There are actually two ways you can hike the Narrows. Top down which is a difficult 18-mile hike and you need to complete the entire route or bottom-up which most people choose, as you start at the end of the trail, hike as far as you want to go, then turn around and make your way back to the shuttles. We were not up for an 18-mile journey that day nor did we have the time, so we opted for the bottom-up adventure.  The upside to this hike is you can go as far and as long as you want, the downside is that it is incredibly crowded.  The best way to avoid the crowds here is to start early or hike very far as the further you go the fewer people you will see. Going further is more challenging however the scenery becomes more and more spectacular as the canyon walls creep closer and closer and the narrows truly lives up to its name. Our hike was a total of 6 miles – 3 out and 3 back and although not very far it was worth every step.  The majority of the hike is in the water and in some spots the water was mid-thigh to waist deep.  The views are incredible and the hike is a one-of-a-kind experience. If Zion is on your bucket list like it was ours, hiking the Narrows is highly recommended.

Our second day at camp was a rest day and we had another incredibly cool experience lined up. Before heading out on this trip a friend of ours recommended we reach out to Tiny Home Tours (YouTube Page / Instagram Page), a YouTube channel with over a million followers that features people living in tiny homes, van lifers, skoolies, small RVs etc.  I reached out to them on Instagram and they connected us with one of their videographers who met us at our camp in Zion. We got up early, cleaned up Olive, made our camp nice and tidy and after prepping ourselves for camera with an 8-minute timed shower, we were ready to go!  Our videographer Mitch pulled up at around 10am, got his camera equipment ready, set us up with microphones and we were ready to become YouTube and Instagram stars! 😉 We shot footage for about an hour or so.  I talked about all the things on the outside of our Airstream like having it polished, the different compartments, solar and air conditioning installation and the storage in our truck. Kandace gave a tour of the inside explaining all of the things we did to make it more functional like installing new flooring, painting the cabinets, adding new cabinet hardware, upgrading the bathroom, bringing live plants and all the other fancy touches she did to make Olive feel like home. At the time of writing this, our episode has not been published yet and we will be sure to let you know when it goes live.

Later that day friends from home who were in town stopped by for a visit. Kandace decided to greet them with one of her unique craft cocktails that she has been creating on this trip. We even decided to make a video series out of this called “Kocktails with Kandace”. The drink she made was a Strawberry Lemon Wine Spritzer and it was delicious.  Click HERE and you can see how she makes it on TikTok.

Additional hikes we completed while in Zion:

Angels Landing / Scout Lookout:

This hike is difficult. Lots of switchbacks and it’s 1,488 feet in elevation from the canyon floor with epic views all along the way.  One thing to note is that many national parks are now requiring permits to do certain hikes and Angels Landing is one of them.  These trails are becoming more popular and overcrowded so permits are the only way to keep them from becoming gridlocked.  Like Half Dome, the permit for the chains portion of the Angel’s Landing trail is by lottery which just started April 1, 2022.  We missed the opportunity to get a permit so we hung out at Scout Lookout for a while which is equally impressive. We walked up to the chain portion of Angel’s landing to say we were there, then circled back to the rim trail for another half mile or so to take in more stunning views before heading back down. If you would like to learn about the permit system and requirements for Angels Landing, you can read more about it on the Recreation.gov or nps.gov websites.

(We learned from one of our camping neighbors that one of the chains broke on the Angels Landing trail so it was closed when they were there in June.)

Emerald Pools Hike:

When we made it back from the Scouts Lookout we decided to put ourselves through some additional pain by going on the emeralds pool trail which seemed like it was going to be a quick one but ended up taking longer than we thought.  It was a hot day and fortunately we had enough water and trail mix to give us the energy to keep going.  We got to the first of the emerald pools and it was a beautiful sight with a low flowing waterfall that we could walk under for a refreshing mist.  There are other pools to visit on this hike but we had had enough for the day and went to the lodge for a beer and an iced tea to finish off the day’s activities.

Canyon Overlook Trail!

I really wanted to make a visit to Canyon Overlook to photograph sunset.  On our first attempt the trail was closed when we arrived. I was super bummed but then remembered that someone we had met at Stewart Falls in Provo mentioned to us that the Canyon Overlook trail was only open on Friday and Saturday.  Fortunately, our last night was on a Friday so we were in luck.  We were pretty hiked out by this point and thought this was going to be an easy few steps from the parking lot but it ended up being two miles round trip!  (I guess we should read more blogs to prep us for these kinds of things 😉) There weren’t any good clouds to offer a colorful sunset so the photography mission was a bit of a bust but being able to experience the view from up there with each other was enough of a reward and a perfect way to end our stay in this beautiful national park.