Travel Tuesdays: Zion National Park

Here we are, 153 years after the Yellowstone Act and numerous other acts and laws through the intervening years, having to justify to certain parties that the National Parks are worth preserving and staffing appropriately. It is frankly shocking to me that simply blogging about all the National Parks and Monuments that I have visited could be seen as a political act. But that is what I will focus on for Travel Tuesdays for the foreseeable future: detailing my trips to various congressionally protected lands dedicated to conservation and publicly accessible recreation throughout the US.

Zion National Park has something in common with Sedona: It is a beautiful area with overcrowding issues. Zion has had to restrict access to the main area of the park proper to a shuttle service for crowd management. I remember the days when that wasn't necessary, back in the early 2000s when I first visited. We weren't quite equipped to do some of the canyon hikes that the park is famous for either of the times we visited then. Now, trying to do one of those adventures would require a lot more coordination and advance planning. Which is probably for the best, given my ability to twist my ankle just by looking at a crooked sidewalk.

But there is still a way to see quite a bit of Zion's stunning vistas: Drive the Zion-Mount Carmel Highway. It's a perfect addition to a journey to or from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, with several lookout spots perfect for a quick picnic out of the back of your car. The picture for this post was taken during such a lunch break. This route also takes you to the eastern side of the park, where the funky remnants of ancient sand dunes dominate the horizon. Also, the highway and tunnel are a rather impressive feat of engineering made possible by the extremely popular, bipartisan Antiquities Act of 1906 (something directly threatened by the current administration's previous iteration).

Yeah, boy, it is very hard to write about something as simple as visiting a beautiful, extremely popular, and iconic National Park without bringing up politics. This land is part of our national heritage and frequently critical spaces for our indigenous populations. Everyone should be able to access these lands for the duration of our country, to say nothing of the global impact as part of our shared human story. The beauty and wonder and history and culture of these places deserves to be protected.