So because I had trouble formatting the first post about the lead up to ACDF surgery I had added photos of Zion, Bryce and Vegas from Oct since that was when the pain started. But I never did a blog on the trip itself. Shame on me for focusing only on my spinal surgery and not memorializing my trip LOL. So here we go.
Zion -Friday Oct 10th, 2025 After flying into Vegas we made the 3ish hour drive over to Zion, checked into the lodge for our Western Cabin and immediately grabbed a park bus to the furthest Valley stop to do the Riverwalk to the Narrows.
It's a mile walk, paved and only a little hilly here and there. There had been a huge series of storms the day before, day of and next day expected and signs up that the Narrows was closed due to flash flooding but I am unsure how closely that's monitored by park staff during a government shutdown as we saw a few people heading back in from their trek. We had not planned to do the Narrows with our short stay but did keep glancing at the skies as it kept thundering. Only a light drizzle hit us for about 2 mins. Was a lovely walk with great views of the river & closing in canyon.
We then hoped the bus to next stop heading back down the valley and walked the very step but well maintained hill up to Weeping Rock which thankfully is short but a nice view. The Weeping Rock itself doesn't photograph well but the view looking out was worth the stop.
Back to the lodge to shower, clean ourselves up for dinner and walk from our cabin to the lodge for dinner. As one of the farthest cabins it's still only about a 7 min walk. Dinner was lovely, if memory serves I had a funky cocktail and rainbow trout with tricolored carrots and mashed potato. Jeff had some sw stew that was the special that he raved about.
Saturday 10/11/25 - per usual us in PST we awoke super early, and the next round of storms had been pounding the area overnight so we were unsure not only if we'd go to Bryce but if we'd have to spend time indoors part of the day as the forecast called for 80% chance of afternoon rain. So to make the most of clear skies we headed into first bus at 7am before official sunrise to next stop at the grotto to start hike into Lower and Mid Emerald Pools. My favorite of the whole trip! Obviously with days of rain including just 3 hrs before we got to the falls they were running strong and many people told us we were getting quite a sight as they hardly have such powerful waterfalls.
Afterwards we had breakfast at the lodge as the trail comes out just across the street. Then hopped the bus to court of the Patriarchs view, it's funny because while still gorgeous this is the most 'meh' bus stop of the stops. Few photos and back on bus to Canyon Junction Bridge stop. From here we walked the Pa'rus Trail until the historic museum. That's about a mile and a half stroll with gorgeous views of the river thru the valley and several passes over the river. Sadly with the government shutdown the museum was closed. Bused down to Visitors Center then back to cabin.
It's only now 1045am! And without doing the two most renowned hikes (Narrows & Angels landing) we have now seen every stop and only box left to check off is the canyon overlook just past Mt Carmel tunnel. It only took 3 hours Friday and 4 hrs Saturday. Recheck the forecast. Rain chance has now gone down to just 20%! Bryce canyon side jaunt is back on! We will hit Overlook on way back.
Drive over to Bryce is almost 2 hrs so we get there at 1pm. Stop at visitors center for bathroom break and map and head to one of the further viewpoints, Natural Arch Bridge which is 20 mins south. We then make our way back stopping at several views until we get to the amphitheater where we walked Sunset Point to Sunrise point and back to car. 3 hrs in park and a good taste for only walking 2 miles. Obviously if we had more time, we would have liked to walk Queens Garden or Navajo trail loop into the hoodoos or a little 1 mile waterfall walk that's a stop one mile further east past the main gate but time was limited, clouds rolled in and a storm was threatening (view from one viewpoint we were totally in a cloud and saw nothing 🤣).
So back to Zion. At 530 before we reached the Mt Carmel tunnel the parking anywhere within a mile of the short Cayon Overlook were jammed so alas had to skip. Another good dinner at lodge after two pre dinner drinks at the lodge Beer Garden and off to cabin to sleep before heading to Vegas. Awoke around 3am in some of the most excruciating pain ever and if you have not read about that you can go to my first post in the ACDF spinal surgery saga for that tale. But a little better when rewoke after hubs got me ice, a short massage, and a 2 hr nap. On to road to Vegas by 530ish? I think I will post Vegas seperate as I always like to revisit Vegas trip reports.
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