Zion National Park, Emerald Pool Trail, Canyon Overlook Trail

From the archives of 2009. I grew up in Hurricane, Utah which is 25 minutes from Zion National Park. We had the run of the place back then. There were no shuttles, no tourists, we could park anywhere we wanted and we could hike anywhere we wanted. I even went tunnel running at night with friends once. My Grandpa helped build those tunnels that run through the park. I even did a 10 mile run from where the River Walk Trail starts all the way to Springdale which is a little town at the entrance of the park. It was amazing!
Things have definitely changed. You can't do anything but hike on the specified trails. You can hardly breathe with all the tourists. It's definately not so bad in the Spring or the Fall which is when I would recommend going. For many years I never took my kids there because I knew it had changed so much, but we did go in 2009. We did three trails. The Emerald Pool Trail, The River Walk Trail and another day we did the Canyon Overlook trail. It is still one of the most beautiful places on earth.

The Emerald Pool Trail

Ya, we took a bunch of kids. The more the merrier I say

The River Walk Trail

The shuttle buses were new to me

The Canyon Overlook Trail

On the way back down the switchbacks from the Canyon Overlook trail we stopped and went swimming in a water hole that I didn't know about but my siblings did. Other people came but not a lot. It was fun for the kids. They went polliwog and baby frog hunting

We saw this bull in Springdale. He was pretty forbidding